


Not Your Emissary

by MeteoraWrites



Series: An Alternate Tale: The Spark and His Pack [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Awesome Laura Hale, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Grumpy Derek Hale, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Minor Abuse of Magic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Sarcasm, Series Rewrite, Slow Build, Slow Build Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Spark Stiles Stilinski, Tattooed Stiles Stilinski, Teenage Drama, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2018-11-07 19:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 28,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11065560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeteoraWrites/pseuds/MeteoraWrites
Summary: Stiles was 13 when he learned he could use magic. He was 16 when he decided to take his best friend looking for a dead body in the woods. The next thing he knows Scott's been bit, there's a crazy Alpha running around town killing people, and Stiles is stuck in the middle of it all. Because of course he's the idiot who took up Deatons offer to learn magic and possibly become an Emissary when he's older.Now here he is, running with wolves, trying to learn to control his spark, and trying not to let anyone die if he can help it. Who knew being a spark and living in a town full of secret supernatural beings would be so fucking dangerous?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Or the story of how Stiles learned to control his spark and fell in love with a slightly damaged sourwolf.





	1. A Little Different

**Author's Note:**

> So I suck at summaries, sorry. This is going to be a cannon adjacent story. I got thinking about how the story would have gone if Stiles was really able to use magic from the start. Along with a few other tweaks here and there and this is what I've come up with. I hope you all enjoy it and stick around to see how it develops. Please let me know what you think!
> 
> Also! A huge thank you to stupidandwicked of tumblr for making the amazing art for the story! If you are on tumblr go give her and her awesome blog all of the lovinz!

Stiles Stilinski was 13 years old when he learned he was a spark. That was also when he learned that he couldn't let anyone know what he was, because normal people either A) didn't think magic was real, or B) thought anyone who claimed to be able to use it was insane and treated said person as such.  

The way Stiles discovered his spark was a total accident. He had gone to his mother's grave, the flowers he left a few days prior had wilted, and when he went to pick them up they suddenly were fully restored, looking as vibrant and beautiful as the day he left them at the base of her headstone. 

Stiles got enough flak in his day to day life for being a spastic ADHD diagnosed kid. He didn't need people thinking he was crazy to boot. Not after how his mother had died. So when Dr. Deaton from the local animal clinic confronted him in the middle of the cemetery a few days later about his abilities Stiles played dumb. Right up until Deaton grabbed a small pouch of black dust and threw it into the air. The dust flew out and formed a perfect circle around him. Stiles stared, wide eyed and mouth gaping as with a wave of his hand Deaton drew the dust back into the pouch before calmly tying it shut again. 

After that Stiles started going to Deaton's clinic 3 nights a week to "Volunteer". He really did help around the clinic for the first hour or so, so the volunteering wasn't a total lie. Once everything was cleaned up and the sign on the front door had been flipped to closed though, that’s when his training would begin. 

It was simple enough at first; focusing energy, controlling mountain ash (the dust Deaton had thrown to make the circle when he confronted Stiles in the cemetery), learning different plants and their uses for both magic and medicinal purposes. 

After 2 1/2 years Stiles had moved on to really learning about the different creatures that existed and hid in plain sight. He was told about the family of wolves that used to reside in and protect Beacon Hills. How Deaton was their Emissary and while the few remaining members of the pack didn't live here anymore their Alpha would call him now and then asking advice and check up on the goings on of the town. 

The night that Stiles overheard his dad on the phone about a dead body in the woods he momentarily wondered if it was somehow involved with the supernatural, but it didn’t really strike him a such because nothing that interesting ever happens around here, so of course he went and got Scott before heading to the woods. Even if they ran into something dangerous he had a bag of mountain ash in his pocket and enough defensive spells memorized to at least stun anything coming at them long enough for the duo to make their escape. 

Everything was going as planned, they parked at the end of one of the old access roads and made it out into the middle of the woods without being spotted. Then of course Stiles spun around and smacked right into one of his dad's Deputies. Then is dad dragged him back to the jeep and had another deputy escort him home and take away the keys, which he was not to get back until right before school the next morning. 

The second he ran into Scott out front of the school the next morning he knew something was different. Scott's presence made something under his skin itch. The invisible wards and runes on his skin moving in a dance that meant something was not quite right. It was a feeling Stiles had never felt before, but it didn't feel –bad- so he ignored the slightly itchy feeling and the dancing marks on his arms that only he could see. 

When Scott tells him that he found the rest of the body, Stiles thinks that’s what's different. Facing death can change a person, and yeah, Scott has seen dead animals, but a dead person is totally different. But then Scott tells him that something bit him and it clicks. Stiles see's the bandage on his friends side and swallows back bile. He doesn't know for sure that it was a shifter though, so he pulls out his phone as he listens to Scott rant about the deer and the body and how he lost his inhaler as he texts Deaton, asking if his charms alerted him to any Omegas in the area or if there was a pack moving through he hadn't been told about. 

Deaton texts back that he had recently spoken to an Alpha who had lost her pack to hunters down south, she was going to rest here for a few days before moving farther north to join a sister pack that had escaped a similar incident but other than that nothing new. He hadn't bothered to tell Stiles because he wanted the first wolves he met to be from a trusted well known pack.  

Stiles felt sick as he texted that there was a dead body found last night and something bit Scott in the woods when they went to check it out. The older man told Stiles to keep an eye on him and if anything happens to get Scott out of there right away. He was going to go pay a visit to the lone Alpha and ask her what's going on. 

When Stiles looked up from his phone he was mostly alone, the last of the students walking past him to first period. He quickly stuffed his phone in his pocket and ran after Scott, who gave up waiting for Stiles when he had zoned out, chewing his lip as he typed rapidly at his phone. 

He found his floppy haired best friend seated at his usual spot, and they talked a bit until class started. He made it seem like he was paying attention to the teacher, but he mostly scribbled notes about how Scott was acting and pretending not to glance over and look him up and down for any signs that the bite was going to kill him. 

That afternoon they went back into the woods and found Scott's inhaler not too far from a bloody patch of leaves that were surrounded by police tape. Stiles pocketed a few to bring to Deaton while Scott was brushing some crud off the outside of his inhaler.  

Once he had dropped Scott off at the clinic he drove over to Deaton's house. He wasn't really supposed to come by without asking first, but he figured the Doc would want to know what was going on ASAP. 

Deaton was in his driveway when Stiles pulled up. His keys in hand like he had just exited his SUV. 

"Yo, Doc, I have something to show you!" He called out the window as he quickly parked along the curb out front of the vets house. 

Deaton paused on his way to his front door. "Hello, Stiles." He said in his normal light tone, raising a brow at the teen who was currently flailing his way out of his beloved blue jeep. 

Stiles sprinted over to the where the Druid stood waiting. "I went back into the woods with Scott. The other half of that body was found and carted off already, but there was blood and maybe some of it's from the wolf that killed her?" He said, holding up a handful of bloody leaves wrapped in a few napkins he had stuffed in a coat pocket. 

Deaton eyed the bundle before taking it from Stiles' hand carefully. "It's possible, and do remember we don't know for sure yet that it was a wolf. Though you should know our lone Alpha was gone when I went to speak to her. Wherever she went she left in a hurry. She didn't take any of her belongings or her car." He said as he examined the bloody leaves, careful not to let them touch each other. "Chances are she wasn't involved in what happened last night, but just to be safe keep an eye on Scott and let me know if there are any developments." 

Stiles nodded before turning and going back to the jeep without another word. 


	2. Friendship is Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I told myself this chapter wouldn't go up until after I posted the next chapter to TILG, but then the lovely and talented stupidandwicked on tumblr made me a poster for this story and I took that as a sign to upload the next part.  
> Thank you all for joining and I hope you enjoy the story!

Stiles was really hoping Scott hadn't actually been bitten by a wolf. And for a short time he managed to convince himself that he wasn't. Right up until lacrosse practice that Friday. There was no way in hell that Scott suddenly was that amazing at the game. Also, how the hell was he running around like that without having an asthma attack? It just wasn't possible. 

When he tried to confront Scott about what he was it didn't go so well. Scott nearly decked him before taking off. So Stiles did the only thing he could do, he made sure he had a bag of mountain ash in his pocket and he went to the party to keep an eye on his best friend. 

Stiles ended up giving Allison a ride home from the party when Scott ran off. It was hella awkward. Stiles had no idea how to console her as she sat there in the space usually taken up by Scott, looking upset but acting like she was fine. "I'm sorry about Scott ditching you like that. He looked pretty sick when he ran past me. I know he would never just take off like that if it wasn't something serious. I'll swing by his place after I drop you off and yell at him, okay?" He offered, attempting to both be a good friend and be nice to the new girl at the same time. 

Allison nodded and pulled her jacket tighter around herself, her gaze never lifting from her lap. "Thanks." She mumbled in reply, a faint smile pulling at her lips. 

"No problem." He replied, giving her a smile and wink when she glanced up at him. 

Once Allison was safely home Stiles sped over to Scotts house. Finding the newly turned wolf hunched in on himself shivering. He was soaked from sitting in the shower with his clothes on. 

"Scotty, you okay?" Stiles asked tentatively, trying to stay calm and not draw attention to the hand creeping towards the pocket that contained his bag of mountain ash. 

"I.. I don't think so.. But Allison! I just left her, Stiles! I-" 

"Allison's okay, I drove her home after you ran out of the party." Stiles assured, cutting Scott off before he could panic further. 

"What's happening to me?" He asked, looking up at Stiles with glowing golden eyes. His mouth hung open slightly, revealing elongated canines. 

Stiles swallowed hard. "You're a werewolf, buddy. I tried to tell ya. Just try to calm down, okay." He explained, trying to sound like his normal self and not like he was mildly terrified at the look his best friend was giving him. 

"How do you know that?" Scott demanded, panic bleeding through his voice and making it sound rougher and more animal-like than before. Though that could also just be the fangs affecting how he spoke, Stiles wasn't sure. 

"It's kind of my job to know.." He explained, wincing slightly at how unsure his voice was while taking a cautious step towards his friend and pushing his sleeves up in preparation to help him up from his spot on the floor. 

Scott's eyes dropped to follow the movement of Stiles' hands and he gasped at what he saw as Stiles' sleeves were rucked up above his elbows. "What are those? You didn't have those this morning!" He asked, wide eyes locked on the markings that covered the other teens wrists and forearms to the elbow.  

Stiles paused, turning his arms so his wrists were held outward in plain view. Deaton had told him that some supernatural creatures could see his tattoos, even with the warding in place, but he hadn't met any yet so he hadn't know for sure it was true.  

From the start of his wrist to the inner bend of his elbows was a long and colorfully elaborate Celtic knot style design. It started at a point where hand meets wrist, bending and twisting into an endless interlocking pattern that had small flowers and symbols woven and tucked into various places throughout. His forearms were covered in swirling lines of runes and glyphs that zigzagged from the back of his wrist to his elbow. 

Stiles turned his arms over slowly so Scott could see that tattoos in their entirety. "So, this is kind of hard to explain, and it probably won't make a whole lot of sense at first, but I'm a spark." He paused a beat, lickng his lower lip before continuing. "I was born with the ability to use magic. These are to help me keep control of it." He explained, laughing nervously and the runes on his forearms began to twist and move around on his skin of their own volition. "I keep them invisible to normal people because A. it's kind of against the law to tattoo a minor, and B. so people won't see them moving around like they are right now. No way in hell people would believe me if I tried to say it was an optical illusion or something..." 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Scott asked, panic returning to his voice as he tried to process what Stiles was saying.  

"I'm talking about magic being real! And I can use it!" Stiles snapped. "That's the real reason I've been volunteering at the clinic since middle school, dude. Deaton caught me zapping the flowers on my moms grave back to life and he offered to teach me how to control my spark. He's also the one who gave me these tattoos so I could try to hide my abilities until I get them under control." 

Scott's jaw dropped, eyes going back to their normal shade of deep brown as his friends words sunk in. "Whoa! What happened! Why can't I see them anymore?" He asked, grabbing Stiles' wrists in both hands and yanking his friend closer to inspect the now apparently unmarked skin. 

Stiles nearly tripped at the sudden tug forward, stumbling and catching himself before slamming down on top of Scott where he still sat in the corner of his bedroom. "You're back to looking with your non-wolfy eyes. Hold on a sec." He huffed then muttered a few words in Latin under his breath. A moment later there was a warm white glow starting at his elbows and rolling over his arms like an ocean wave. As it rippled down the exposed skin it left behind the marks that had clearly been visible to Scott moments before. 

"Dude!" Scott exclaimed, jerking his hands away before the glow could reach them. The instant the glowing wave dissipated his hands were right back on Stiles' arms, running over the lines of ink that were now fully visible, rubbing at the skin to check if this was all some joke and they would wipe away under his touch. 

"Pretty neat, huh?" Stiles asked, letting his best friend turn and poke at his arms to his hearts content. Every now and then the tattoos would move, the massive knot design shifting in a manner similar to a snake that was coiled up, a small flower rustling like it was hit by a breeze, a rune changing colors as it spun across Stiles' skin.  

"How are they doing that?" Scott asked, now fully calm and in control of himself again. His panicked demeanor dissolving into rapt curiosity as he scanned every detail of the intricate patterns of Stiles' tattoos. 

Stiles hummed and watched the rune for friendship as it flashed back and forth between purple and yellow a few times before shifting back to its base shade of black again. "I don't have full control of my abilities. They sort of do that to let me know I'm losing focus, and to expend some of the energy so I don't do something stupid like blow a light bulb when I'm freaked out or accidentally turn Finnstock's whistle into a spider when he pisses me off." 

"That was you! I thought they said the spider had escaped from one of the science labs!" Scott was looking at Stiles with wide shocked eyes again. "So wait, I don't get it. How come you never told me about this?" He asked, letting go of Stiles' arms finally. 

Stiles looked down and after a moment shoved his sleeves back down to cover himself. "I tried to tell my dad when it first happened, he said I was making up stories and that I was too old to believe in magic. I couldn't control it enough to prove it to him and I didn't think anyone else would believe me, so I decided not to try and tell anyone else. Not even after Deaton started to train me to control it." 

When he looked up again Scott was giving him a soft look, complete with puppy eyes. "Dude, I'm your best friend. I would have believed you."  

Stiles gave a crooked smile at that, eyes going a little watery. "Yeah, I know that now. But back then I was afraid everyone would think I was crazy. I didn't want people to think I was losing my mind.. Ya'know.. Like my mom.. So it was easier to keep it hidden from everybody." 

Scott nodded. "Alright, I get that.." After a beat he pushed himself to stand, taking a deep shuddering breath. "I think I'm okay now.." He muttered shyly. "So.. I'm really a werewolf and you can do magic.." He summarized. 

Stiles nodded and grinned "Yup. Welcome to the supernatural world, buddy." He said, patting Scott on the shoulder. "Now put on some dry clothes and I'll fill you in one some of the cool shit I can do with my spark." 

Scott grinned back and nodded before retreating into his bathroom to get changed.  

Stiles took the time to shoot Deaton a text filling him in on the situation. He told Stiles that he handled the situation well and to be careful if he intended to watch over Scott the rest of the night. With that Stiles pocketed his phone and scrubbed a hand over his face, suppressing a sign. It was going to be a long night, but at least everything was out in the open now. 


	3. Wolfsbane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back for another chapter! I had intended to wait until I got another story done for Sourwolf & Mischief, but I was inspired to write more of this story and here we are. Hope you all enjoy and please feel free to leave any questions or comments =)

The next evening Stiles went to his regularly scheduled training session with Deaton only to find the man hunched over his exam table with a number of petri dishes laid out before him. Each with a dry blood encrusted leaf in the center. 

The older man looked up at the teen, expression staying neutral as he watched him enter and lock the back door behind him. "Excellent timing. Care to join me in a little experiment?" He asked, a small smile forming on his lips. 

Stiles dropped his book bag beside the table and nodded. "Sure. What are we doing?" He asked, picking up an unmarked glass bottle of purple flower buds and giving it a shake. 

Deaton took the bottle from his hands and uncorked it. "We're going to see if any of the blood you brought back came from a wolf." He explained, taking a few blossoms from the bottle and placing them in a metal mortar which he then handed to Stiles. "Care to do the honors?" 

Stiles grinned as he took the mortar and began to grind the delicate dried flower buds to dust. Once it was done he mixed it with a little of the clear liquid Deaton handed him. Once it was fully mixed he sucked a little of the mixture up with a dropper and squeezed it onto the first leaf as Deaton instructed. Almost immediately the blood began to bubble up and turn black. 

Stiles jerked back at the reaction. "Oh god! What does that mean?" He asked, eyes going wide as he looked back and forth between Deaton and the dish. 

"It means the blood is from a werewolf." The older man said calmly, brows knitting together slightly as he watched the tacky red mess in the dish turn black and oozy. 

"Okay, but why's it reacting like that?" He asked, crouching and bringing his face level with the edge of the table to watch the dish now that he was sure it wasn't going to pull an Alien and attack him or explode or something.  

"That was wolfsbane. It's toxic to humans, deadly in large doses. However, even a small dose can be deadly to wolves. This is what it looks like when it interacts with their blood." Deaton explained, taking the dropper from where Stiles had let it fall on the table. He refilled it and proceeded to repeat the process with every dish.  

Stiles watched closely as every dish reacted the same way. "Sooo.. All of the blood is from a wolf? Does that mean the dead girl was a wolf?" Stiles asked, squinting at the oozing black slime in the dishes. 

"Yes. It's unlikely that all of the blood would have been from her attacker. You brought leaves from different parts of the scene, correct?" Stiles nodded. "By any chance did Scott say what color hair the corpse had?" Deaton asked as he began to clear off the exam table. 

"Blonde. Why?" Stiles asked, still eyeing one of the dishes closely.  

"Our visiting lone Alpha was blonde.." Deaton mused as he picked up one of the petri dishes to take an appraising look at the contents. "And roughly in her mid twenties.. Is it possible you can get ahold of the final report from the medical examiner when your father gets it?" 

Stiles nodded as he stood up straight. "Yeah, I'll send you a copy when it comes in." After a beat he rubbed the top of his head, mildly obsessed with the feel of his buzzcut. Rubbing it became a way to calm himself and regain a little focus when his thoughts got too scattered. "So, is that the lesson for tonight, should I get going?" He asked, looking around the room aimlessly. 

"That was the first part of the lesson. Now that you've seen what wolfsbane can do to a wolf's blood we're going to learn about the different types of it and what other effects they have on shifters and humans alike." Deaton explained, turning back to the exam table with a book on plants that Stiles was somewhat familiar with already. "I'm afraid I only have one variety of wolfsbane on hand, so you'll have to rely on this for a visual aids as well as your information." He explained, setting the book down gently before flippping open to the vast section on wolfsbane. 

A large cup of coffee and two hours later Stiles closed the book with a thud and a loud yawn. "Alright, Doc, I'm calling it quits for tonight." 

Deaton hummed his acknowledgement from where he sat across the room, writing notes on files for different animals currently at the clinic. "Have a pleasant evening, Stiles." 

Stiles slung his bag over his shoulder and smiled at the older druid. "You too." He said before heading out to his jeep. 

Once Stiles was comfortably behind the wheel he pulled his cell phone from the glove box. Once he had been old enough to have one Deaton insisted he leave it outside so it didn't end up damaged or interrupting his focus. God knows what would happen if he was in the middle of doing something like making a fireball and a text came in and made him jump. Yeah, that would not end well. 

There's a text from his dad asked him to text back when he's headed home and letting him know there is still some of that chicken and rice casserole he made the night before if he wants whats left. Stiles smiled at the text for a moment before replying that he was on his way home now and thanking his dad for saving him some. It was one of the few healthy things Stiles had learned to cook that his dad actually ate without protest, so the fact that he left Stiles any was a miracle. 

When Stiles pulled up his house he found Scott sitting on his from step looking tired and confused. 

"Scotty? What's up man? You look like crap." He said as he climbed out of the jeep and started towards his friend. 

Scott looked up at him and yawned before answering. "I couldn't sleep last night, man. I kept thinking about everything that’s happened and my brain just wouldn't shut off." 

"You're preaching to the choir here." Stiles snorted. "Welcome to my world. Come on, let's go inside. You can tell me everything that's kept you up for over 24 hours and I'll share my dinner with you." 

Scott smiled sheepishly as he stood to let his friend unlock the door he had been blocking. "Is it that chicken 'n rice stuff? I could smell it when I got here earlier." 

Stiles nodded as he got the door unlocked and opened, he gestured for Scott to go on ahead of him. "You bet your ass it is. I made a ton of it for dad the other night and he was kind enough not to devour it all. Now move it, before I change my mind about sharing." He sassed. 

Scott bolted in through the open door, making for the kitchen before Stiles even had a chance to walk in after him. With a laugh Stiles went in a locked up behind himself, any worries he had were temporarily forgotten as he went to reheat dinner for himself and his best friend. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to note I fully encourage people to share their thoughts and theories about the story. Hope you all enjoyed and we'll see you next chapter!


	4. Who's the Alpha?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I have some terrible news. My laptop died the other night. Can't get it to boot and have to wait to take it for possible repairs as I'm laid up with a sprained knee and ankle. When it rains it pours, am I right? Anyway here is chapter 4 for you all to enjoy in the mean time. I write everything on onedrive thankfully, so nothing was lost, I just can't work on the story at home unless I wanna try and write on my tablet or phone, which I do not, so please be patient as updates will probably be slow af for a while.

Sunday morning Stiles awoke to Scott snoring away on a pile of pillows and blankets beside his bed. He carefully detangled himself from his own blanket to the best of his ability before creeping down stairs to make coffee.  

While waiting for the shiny black coffee maker to do its job Stiles checked outside, finding his dads cruiser absent he took the liberty to go snoop around his office for any new information on the body they found in the woods. 

Upon entered the office Stiles heard the telltale hum of the fax machine powering down. A neat stack of freshly printed papers sat in its outgoing tray and Stiles grinned as he walked over and picked them up.  

The pages were still warm in his hands, and as he flipped through them he realized this was the completed autopsy report his dad had been waiting on. He must have faxed a copy to himself so he wouldn't have to cart home the whole folder later. 

The report said that the woman had died from an animal attack, all markings were believed to be made by a mountain lion. The last two pages turned out to be a police record for a Linda Birch, age 25 from Southern California. She had been reported missing by neighbors a few weeks ago after her family and several friends were found dead in the woods. She was wanted for questioning on the matter. 

Stiles felt his stomach clench painfully as he read over all of the information. It was bad enough her whole pack had been murdered by rogue hunters, but to have to die the way she did on top of all that, it was just fucking horrible. 

Taking a moment to compose himself he pulled his phone from the pocket of his pajama pants and took pictures of the pages before sending them to Deaton. Once that was done he carefully put the stack of pages back in the tray of the fax machine and close the door behind him. 

When he reentered the kitchen he found Scott sitting at the table, hunched forward with a cup of coffee and a half eaten bowl of fruit loops. 

"Hey, how did you know where those were?" Stiles asked incredulously, pointing to the box of cereal on his way to fix himself a cup of coffee. 

"I, uh.. I could smell them.. I'm kind of surprised your dad hasn't found them yet, the warmer drawer under the stove is kind of an obvious hiding place." He said with a small smile before stuffing another spoonful of the sugary loops into his mouth. 

Stiles snorted "Of course you did. I don't always hide them there, and dad's given up trying to look for my stashes of unhealthy food stuffs, so don't go telling him where any of them are, alright there, Pluto?" 

This time it was Scotts turn to snort "Dude, really, Pluto?" 

Stiles shrugged. "Sue me, I haven't had any caffeine or adderall yet." He grumbled as he took a seat at the table next to Scott, a cup of coffee and bowl of cereal ready for him to consume. "So dad got the report back on the body, her death was ruled an animal attack. And apparently her name was Linda. Pretty sure she's the lone Alpha Deaton spoke to before everything went down." 

Scott dropped his spoon with a loud clatter on the table. "If the dead girl was the Alpha we thought bit me, who actually bite me?" He asked, eyes wide with worry. 

"I don't know, buddy, but we'll figure it out." Stiles tried to reassure his friend. Just then his phone dinged with an incoming text. He quickly pulled it out and let Scott read the message with him. It was from Deaton and he confirmed that the girl was indeed the Alpha he had spoken to. He also said that it was likely another werewolf that had attacked her, one that was more than likely feral, and because of that, much more dangerous. 

"So I got attacked by a rabid Alpha?" Scott asks, face scrunching in confusion at the flurry of incoming texts from Deaton. 

"Well feral's not actually the same thing as rabid, but basically yes." Scots face dropped at that "Look, whoever bit you probably killed Linda for her power as an Alpha, werewolves can do that. They didn't kill you though, so they either didn't realize what they were doing, or they want to build a pack." 

"What does that mean though, are they going to come looking for me?" Scott was starting to breath heavy, obviously more than a little freaked out. 

"I don't know. I legit only started learning about werewolves and other creatures, like, three months ago. Not exactly an expert here, Scotty. But Deaton is. So we can go ask him all of the questions when he goes to the clinic later." 

Scott blinked, still pouting and looking like he wants to bolt out and wait at the clinic. "So what do we do for now?" 

"For now you are gonna calm the hell down and let me drink my coffee and take some adderall before we do anything else. Got it?" 

Scott made a meek sounding whine. "But.." He began, and quickly bit his lower lip to silence himself at the look of total doneness that Stiles was giving him. 

"No buts, coffee, adderall, possibly more coffee after that. Now hush." He said before shoveling an overfull spoons worth of cereal into his mouth and chewing slow and deliberately. 


	5. Dream of Wolves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks! So this chapter is sort of a filler/build up one. I wanted to give you all a little something to tide you over for a while as my laptop is completely dead and I can only type at work for the foreseeable future. Hope you all enjoy it!

Deaton wasn't actually all that helpful when it came to Scott's questions about the Alpha that bit him. There hadn't been any sign of them since the night he was bit, so it's possible they were a rogue wolf that lost their pack then snapped and didn't realize what they were doing anymore. They might not have even been an Alpha before they encountered Linda that night, so they might not have realized they would turn Scott when they bit him. No one knew and there was no way to find out for sure unless the Alpha returned. 

Of course upon hearing that not having a pack can drive a wolf crazy Scott had promptly freaked out. Deaton informed him that he had his mom, and Stiles, and his connection to them was strong as any pack, so he would be fine.  

From there things went from alright to utter crap. At least in Stiles' opinion. Scott had told him that Allison had forgiven him for ditching her at the party, which yeah, that was cool, but that same day Scott wolfed out and dislocated Jackson's shoulder during practice.  

That part, while cool, because Jackson was a douche that deserved a good asskicking, was also not so good because the preppy bastard was already super suspicious of Scott and that show of strength definitely didn’t help matters. 

Yeah, that day was fun. Stiles had to use a damn fire extinguisher on Scott to snap him out of his wolfed out state. Because of course he didn't think to keep a bag of mountain ash in his lacrosse shorts. Smacking into an invisible barrier probably would have hurt like a bitch for Scott, but it would have been a hell of a lot easier on Stiles, fighting with the extinguisher while trying not to be mauled was really not as easy as one would think. 

The rest of the week was pretty uneventfully aside from Scott wolfing out again during their first lacrosse game of the year.  

Deaton told Stiles at their Wednesday training session that he let the Alpha of the pack that still technically controlled Beacon Hills know what had happened. She told him that if there was any sign of the rogue Alpha's return to let her know and she would be there on the next fight. So they had help from another wolf if they needed it. 

The following Monday it turned out that that was indeed a thing they needed. Because walking into school that day Scott told Stiles about a dream he had where he attacked Allison on one of the school busses, only for them to arrive and discover said bus torn apart and covered in blood. 

Allison was okay, but later they discovered that the bus driver wasn’t. 

"Dude, seriously, it wasn't you? It had to have been the Alpha, the dream was just a coincidence." Stiles said before shoving a french fry in his mouth. 

"I could smell myself when we got close to the bus, Stiles. I was there." Scott said resolutely. 

"But you don't remember any of it, you thought you were with Allison, right? Maybe it was some weird wolf bond thing with the Alpha that invaded your dreams and made you think you were there when you weren't? Or maybe you were sleep walking again and you were there but you were trying to stop the Alpha? I've seen how big your claws are, buddy, they couldn't have made marks as big as the ones on the back door of the bus. Let me do some research after school. We'll figure this out."  

Scott scrunched his face in uncertainty. "Maybe.. But I can't shake the feeling that this is my fault.." He mumbled.  

Right then Lydia Martin sat down at their table and the whole conversation was shut down along with Stiles' ability to speak for the moment. Because holy crap, Lydia Martin was sitting next to him, willingly. Of her own volition. What the hell? 

That evening Stiles received a text from Deaton letting him know that he had heard about what happened to the bus driver at the school and he informed the Alpha of the local pack. She asked to be kept apprised of the situation and asked that Stiles email her anything he could about both the dead Alpha and the attack on the driver. 

He grumbled to himself as he scanned everything he could find in his dads office and readied them to go out in a group email to both Deaton and this mystery Alpha, LH. "What am I, a freaking secretary? 'Stiles, please email these files to LH, and while you're at it, make me a cup of tea.'." He snarked to himself in a tone of voice that was meant to mock Deaton's but didn't even come close.  

Just as he hit send there was a knock at the front door. Scott was there asking Stiles to go to the school with him because he needs to try and remember what happened and he thinks that he needs to visit the bus to do it. 

Sure enough while Stiles stood around freezing his ass off waiting around outside Scott does remember what happened. He remembers trying to save the bus driver. It was mixed with flashes of seeing Allison, so Stiles theory that it was sleepwalking mixed with some link to the Alpha seems more plausible now. Especially when Scott says a lot of the blood was actually his and he thought he saw a pair of glowing red eyes on the bus.  

Stiles texts that to Deaton, who promptly called 'the mysterious Alpha LH'. On the drive home Stiles gets a text back saying they will have help there in two days and to keep a close eye on Scott. Like he's going to do anything else. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think?


	6. Bite Your Tongue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! So I'm attempting to repair my laptop myself, I ordered 2 parts that arrived today so IF I'm lucky I can have it working tonight and can start writing from home again. If I'm wrong though then I need to buy a new motherboard in 2 weeks when I have the money and that'll further delay all of this.  
> Anyway enough of my crap, here's a new chapter for you all! As always please feel free to comment! Enjoy my loves!

Stiles is hunched over the exam table in the back of Deaton's clinic when she arrives. The older Druid walks in followed by a woman in her mid twenties; she's about 5'7" with long brown hair and soft green eyes. Stiles recognizes her almost immediately despite it having been years since he last saw her, and stands up abruptly, almost knocking the book he was reading on werewolves to the floor in the process. "Holy shit!" He mutters, eyes going wide as he takes in the sight of Laura Hale for the first time since he was a kid.

"Stiles Stilinski, this is Laure Hale, Alpha of the Hale pack." Deaton introduces politely, gesturing to the young woman who's giving him a small smile.

"I know who she is." Stiles blurts without thinking as he stumbled around the table to offer her his hand to shake. "You and your brother disappeared after the rest of your family died in a fire, like, ten years ago." He rambled, facing going red and splotchy with embarrassment when he realized how stupid a comment that was.

Laura took his hand and gave a firm shake before speaking, her tone was light like she wasn't affected by what he said in the slightest. "Actually, it was six years ago. And we didn't disappear, we moved to New York city after the state awarded me custody of my brother." She explained with a small shrug. "But my family's tragic backstory isn't what brings me here tonight." She said dismissively. "Why don't you fill me in on everything that's been going on the last few weeks."

Stiles scratched at the back of his neck nervously and leaned back against the exam table, still feeling embarrassed for bringing up what was probably the worst day of the young woman's life in the first 30 seconds of meeting her. "Okay, so, it all started when I overheard my dad get a call from one of his deputies about a dead body in the woods."

Laura's eyes went wide as if something in her mind suddenly made a connection. "Your father is Sheriff Stilinski." It was a statement, not a question.

Stiles nodded, swallowing back the urge to comment that yeah, his dad's first major case as Sheriff was investigating the fire that killed her family. "Yeah. So, I, being the good friend that I am, decided to go grab Scott and drag him into the woods in the middle of the night, because they had only found half of the body. I wanted to find the other half, because, ya'know, it's a freaking dead body? How cool is that?"

Deaton and Laura both rolled their eyes at the boy, though Stiles only saw Laura roll hers as Deaton was in the process of putting away the book Stiles was no longer reading.

"Anyway, we get out there and I ran ahead only to slam right into my dad and one of his deputies. Scott was hiding behind a tree or something and stayed hidden even when my dad yelled for him to come out. So, while I'm getting dragged to my Jeep then escorted home by a deputy, who took away my keys upon arrival, Scott ends up stumbling upon the other half of the aforementioned body and then getting bitten by our mysterious killer Alpha." Stiles said before ending with a broad sweeping gesture with his arms. "And that's the story of how this nightmare started." He said dramatically before briging his arms to cross over his chest.

Laura raised a brow in an expression of 'Seriously, kid?' as she processed what the teen had just told her. "Deaton, do you have a map of the preserve handy?" She asked, glancing at the Emissary who simply nodded before stepping out of the room. "I need to know exactly where the body was found, can you show me?" 

Stiles nodded and a moment later Deaton was back with a map of the preserve. He spread it out on the exam table then held up a red marker for Stiles to take.

"So." The teen started, leaning over the table again and scanning the map momentarily. "The joggers found the lower half of the body here.." He said as he made an X where he had seen one on the same map in his dad's office. "And Scott found the upper half.." He ran his fingers over the paper lightly as he found the right spot. "Here." He said, making another X as he did so.

Laura eyed the map appraisingly. "That's right on the edge of my family's property." She said softly, running a finger along what Stiles assumed was the property line. "Any wolves from the area know this is Hale territory and to avoid going anywhere near it. Everything smelled like death and ashes out there last I knew, so any wolves that didn't know what happened would still try and avoid it on instinct." She explained as she straightened and shifted her gaze from the map to Stiles where he stood beside her. He was still bent over the table, tapping the now capped marker on the map. 

"What if they were completely out of it though? Deaton said something about the wolf that killed Linda could have been an Omega that snapped from being alone too long?" Stiles questioned.

Laura nodded, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned and leaned back against the table. "That does make the most sense." She conceded. "I'll go out to the preserve tonight and see if I can find anything to help us track down this Alpha."

"Do you need any help? Scott and I can meet up with you there?" Stiles asked, standing straigt as he did so and leaning back against the table in a similar stance to Laura's. 

Laura shook her head. "My brother's flight lands in half an hour, I'll take him. Thanks for the offer though." She said, giving the teen a warm smile. "So, how is Scott handling everything?."

Stiles straightened up again at that "He's having some trouble, but we're working on it."

Laura nodded. "Well if he's interested I'd be willing to meet with him. We can work on his control. No presure to join the pack or anything like that." She gave another smile. "I'm going to go pick up my brother now, have Deaton give you my number and shoot me a text. I'll let you know if we find anything out there tonight."

Stiles gave a small wave as he watched Laura push away from the table and walk away. "Cool, thanks."

Once she was gone Stiles turned to face Deaton, who was leaning against a table on the other side of the room, hands in his pockets as he watched Stiles.

"So, how bad of a first impression was that?" Stiles asked, fidgeting with the end of one of his sleeves.

Deaton hummed in thought a moment before answering. "You handled yourself better than I expected you to." He said lightly, a small smile tugging at the corner of his features.

Stiles groaned and ran his hands over his buzzcut before clasping his hands together over the back of his neck. "You could have actually told me who she was before all of this. Ya'know, instead of just refering to her as the Alpha and all that. I feel like a total ass for bringing up her whole family dying like that. You know I have, like, no filter when I'm surprised." He groaned exasperatedly.

"That's exactly why I didn't warn you. You would have tried to be on your best behavior rather than trying to be yourself. If you decide that you're going to be an Emissary one day you can't hide who you are from the Alpha you're to be Emissary to."

Stiles let his hands drop back to his sides with a sigh. "So basically you threw me under the bus to prove I'm a good potential Emissary. Dude, I don't even know if I have what it takes to be an Emissary. I'm more chaotic good than true neutral material." He said with a smirk at his own comment.

Deaton stared blankly at the teen. "That may be, but no one ever said that an Emissary had to be completely neutral. I don't always stay neutral in all matters, Stiles. The fact of the matter is you're not a Druid. I don't expect you to be something you're not, and no one else should either." He stood then and grabbed a piece of paper from one of the tables. He quickly scribbled down a few phone numbers and held it out for Stiles to take. "This is Laura's number as well as her brothers, don't forget to text Laura when you get home. Have a good night, Stiles."

"Yeah, thanks. G'night, Doc." He said as he folded up the paper. He pocketed it and walking out the door without another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts, questions, comments?


	7. The Hale Pack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I told myself I wasn't going to post this yet, but then I saw how many subscriptions this has (170) and I decided that because you're all amazing and just totally made my day that I would give you all a new chapter now!  
> Enjoy!

The next morning Stiles awoke to a text from Laura letting him know that she and Derek had spent the entire night searching the preserve for any sign of the mystery Alpha. They didn't find any, but that wasn't surprising since it had been a few days since the last attack and it had rained heavily since then. He shot back a text that if they hadn't yet they should check around the school since the last attack had happened there. The bus had already been hauled off to be cleaned and repaired or something like that, but there could still be some clues laying around.

The rest of the day went by with no news from anyone, which wasn't surprising since Deaton had to go out of town that night and Stiles assumed that Laura and her brother would need to sleep eventually. So it was a major surprise to Stiles when he received a call from Laura Hale asking to meet him at the Clinic at almost three in the morning. 

Fortunately for her he was there already, having just spent the last several hours practicing a spell that was supposed to open locks if done correctly (And he only broke one door in the process, thank you very much!). She caught him just as he was about to head home. So he shut off the engine of the jeep and headed back inside to wait.

Ten minutes later Laura was coming in through the back door of the clinic half carrying a very unhappy looking young man with darker hair than hers in a dark gray henley that had the left sleeve pulled up as blood dropped down his forearm from a wound close to the inner bend of the elbow. 

Stiles felt his stomach lurch a bit at the sight of blood flowing freely from the wound. "Oh, god! What happened?" He asked, running over to close and lock the door behind them while Laura brought the mystery man over to lean on the exam table.  

"We caught wind of the Alpha and when we separated to try and corner them a hunter shot Derek." Laura explained as she removed Derek's good arm from where it was wrapped tight around her shoulders.

Derek let out a pained grunt as his sisters movements jostled him uncomfortable. 

Stiles eyes widened in further surprise. "We've got hunters? Here?" He asked, voice going a little high pitched. "Perfect. That’s just, That's fucking perfect!" He exclaimed loudly before walking around the table to put a little room between himself and the aggravated Beta that was giving him a serious death glare from under the most intimidating set of eyebrows Stiles had ever seen. Honestly if the guy wasn't looking like he wanted to murder him, Stiles might have found him attractive.

"So why do you need me? Shouldn't he be healing on his own by now?" Stiles asked, gesturing to the wound on Derek's arm but avoiding looking at it.

"The bullet was laced with wolfsbane." Derek said, words short as he grit his teeth in either pain or irritation, Stiles' couldn't tell which.

Stiles eyes went wide at that, mouth dropping open. "That's a thing, wolfsbane bullets? Seriously?"

Derek looked to Laura, who was standing to his right with her arms crossed over her chest. "I thought you said we were going to meet someone who could help?"

Laura just quirked a brow at him. "He can help. And if he can't he can call someone who can. Right?" She was looking to Stiles now, giving him a reassuring smile with one eyebrow raised like she dared him to say he couldn't help.

"Uh.." Stiles blinked at the both of them for a moment before snapping to. "Yeah. I can help." He said quickly, turning and grabbing some books from where they were hidden in a cabinet beside Deaton's desk. "You said it was wolfsbane, right? So there are, like, dozens of species of the stuff. So we need to find out what kind they used before I can really do anything." He said as he put the books down on the table beside where Derek had his arm resting on the cold metal surface. 

The thud of the heavy books jostled the wolfs arm and made him grunt. "Yeah, we know that already." Derek growled.

"If this is out of your league, Stiles, you can call Deaton." Laura said after a few moments of watching the teen flip through the pages of one of the books he had set out. "I know he said you only just started learning about wolves recently." 

Stiles shook his head. "The Doc left for some Veterinary conference earlier tonight. He's probably still on his plane to Boston." He explained, finding the page he wanted as he did so and going silent as he read over it.

Laura waited patiently for the young spark to read over the information he needed. Derek on the other hand, was not so patient. He was bleeding, in pain, and in the hands of a human he had never met before that apparently his sister trusted after having met him once the night before for all of 10 minutes.

"Well?" Derek grit out after a few silent moments.

Stiles blinked up at the wolf "Do you still have the bullet?" Stiles asked, standing up straight and closing the book.

Derek growled low at that. "No, I was in the middle of jumping from a roof and it went straight through my arm. I have no idea where it went."

"I could go back and look for it, but it was a high powered rifle, it's probably long gone." Laura said, putting a hand on Derek's shoulder and giving it a squeeze. "I didn't even know Derek had been shot until I lost track of the Alpha and came back to find him."

Stiles nodded. "Well we need to find it or the hunter that shot you and see if they have any more of those bullets." He said. "Deaton only keeps one kind of wolfsbane here and if I use the wrong kind to try and make an antidote it would just end up killing you faster." He explained grimly.

Laura nodded and squeezed Derek's shoulder again before taking her hand away. "I was afraid of that. I'll go back and see if I can find the bullet or any trace of the hunter that shot you." She looked to Stiles then, green eyes turning serious. "I need to ask you a favor." She said sternly, voice going from the kind tone he had only heard her speak in until that point to something authoritative. 

Stiles swallowed hard and nodded, signaling her to ask away.

"Do you know a safe place where Derek can stay while I look for what we need?"

"Laura, I can help!" Derek said, voice raising as he stood up straight, body tense and towering over his sister as he stood to his full height.

Laura looked up at him, face set in stone in a look of utter seriousness. Her eyes went red then, and it absolutely scared the hell out of Stiles. 

"You will stay where it is safe until I find that bullet. You are injured and that wolfsbane will make you lose control of the shift eventually. I am not going to risk it, Derek. Is that understood." She said loud and clear, voice never wavering in the command.

Derek took a step back, head dropping low enough that his chin touched his chest and his eyes stayed firmly on the ground. "Yes."he said in a low tone.

Stiles went from momentarily terrified to impressed. He had read that if an Alpha gave an order like that that their Betas would react in such a way, but he didn't expect to ever see it. Especially when the Alpha was a woman of 5'7" and the Beta was a good 6 feet tall with enough muscle to break Stiles like a twig.

Laura turned to look at Stiles again then, waiting for an answer to her previous question.

He blinked, thinking a moment to consider before answering, one hand coming up to rub at the back of his head anxiously. "Well, I mean, he can stay here, the clinic is closed until Tuesday and Scott and I are the only other people with keys besides Deaton." He explained, looking from Laura to Derek, who was still standing to the side with his head bowed and his fists clenched at his sides.

Laura's serious expression slipped back to a warm smile that made her green eyes seem to sparkle. "Perfect. I'll call if I find anything." She said to them both before turning and letting herself out the back door.

Stiles watched her go, blinking in confusion at everything that had just transpired.

Derek cleared his throat then. When Stiles turned to look he was standing straight again, head up and eyes narrowed at him.

"Um, listen, I gotta go.." Stiles said, pointing back over his shoulder towards the door the eldest Hale had just left through. "I've got school in a few hours.. Uh, bathroom and storage closet are down the hall." He said, pointing to the door that also led to the kennels. "There's some food and drinks in the cooler down there." He explained, taking a step back toward the door. "Bandages too.." He added, gesturing to Derek's arm that was still slowly bleeding.

Derek looked down at his arm then back to Stiles, face still pinched in a look of annoyance. He nodded once and with that Stiles was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is my firm belief that Laura doesn't like to use her Alpha rebuke powers on Derek unless she absolutely has to.  
> Anyway what do you all think so far? Enjoying the story so far? I promise more magic Stiles to come!


	8. Magic Bullet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I rewatched the clinic scene from the episode Magic Bullet and tweaked it, I did copy most of the dialogue because there was no way I could do it justice from memory. So I hope you all enjoy this bit.

Before school that morning Stiles filled Scott in on everything, and Scott told Stiles that he had heard the Alpha howl and went looking for it without even realizing what he was doing. He also saw who shot Derek, not that he knew who Derek was until Stiles told him. 

Scott was also freaking out because after he saw the blonde chick shoot Derek, Allison's dad showed up to help her. So safe to say he was majorly freaked out that his girlfriend's dad was apparently a hunter. 

As soon as Stiles knew that Allison's dad was a hunter he texted Laura and told her. She apparently knew the Argent family were hunters, but not that they had come back to Beacon Hills. So chances are the mystery hunter that shot Derek was either an Argent, or one of their friends. Lovely. 

After school Stiles went to head back to the clinic only to almost run over Derek Hale in the freaking parking lot. He had gotten a text from Laura about what was going on and decided to try and follow Scott's girlfriend in the hopes of finding the hunter that shot him. Instead he ended up bleeding all over the front seat of Stiles' jeep while he brought them back to the clinic to work out a plan that wasn't so stupid. 

"You can barely walk, how do you expect to track down the hunter that shot you and get one of her bullets undetected? You're bleeding still and at half power at best, right?" Stiles asked, grimacing as he watched Derek pull his sleeve up to inspect the wound on his arm that had bled through the bandage he had put on it. 

Derek let out a low growl. "I can handle myself." He said, looking over the black veins running up his bicep. 

"Look, your sister is trusting me to keep you safe, she's going to kill me if anything happens to you." Stiles said, glaring at the Beta beside him before looking back to the road. "Now she's going to kill us both because you were an idiot and probably sped up the poison by walking all the way to the school with the intention of stalking my best friends girlfriend." 

"You're not going to tell her anything, or I'm going to rip your throat out. With my teeth!" He said the last part with a growl and a glare complete with what Stiles could only describe as murderbrows. 

Stiles blinked at the wolf, mouth dropping open in momentary shock. "Seriously? Dude!" 

"Just drive, Stiles." Derek grit out. 

"Okay, okay." The teen mumbled as he focused on driving again. "Dude, I really hope Laura finds that bullet soon. You're start to smell." He said after a moment of silence.

Derek groaned in annoyance. "Like what." He asked, his nose was so full of the smell of his own tainted blood that he couldn't smell anything else. 

"Like death. You're starting to smell like death." Stiles said honestly. He caught Derek making a face of disgust out of the corner of his eye before the wolf turned his head and failed to subtly sniff at himself. He had a scowl on as he faced forward again and Stiles didn't know if that meant he agreed or couldn't smell it himself. 

The two of them were on the back of the Clinic when Scott texted that the other hunter was Allison's aunt Kate. Stiles instantly texted back that he needed to go through her stuff and find the bullet. Apparently the house had a lot of bullets because Allison's dad was a firearms salesman. Fucking perfect.  

Laura finally replied to Stiles' text about the current situation saying her phone had died and that she would drive over to Allison's so have Scott find the bullet and beat feet out of there. She would meet him at the end of the street and he should look for a black Camaro.  

Shortly after that Derek started to get worse. 

"What are you doing?" Stiles asked in a panic as he watched Derek strip off his bloodied shirt and start to dig through the drawers in the back of the clinic. 

A moment later Derek was setting a bone saw on the table and tying a blue rubber cord around his bicep.  

Stiles picked up the saw and upon realizing what it was put it right back down, feeling queasy at the thought of it being used for anything. "Oh, my god!" He exclaimed, turning and trying to get the rolling of his stomach to calm. "What if you bleed to death?" He asked the wolf who was still tying the cord in place. 

"It'll heal if it works." Derek mumbled around the end of the blue rubber clenched between his teeth. The darkened veins on his arm were growing darker and creeping closer to his shoulder every second. 

"Look." Stiles said, grimacing as he spoke. "I don't know if I can do this." 

"Why not?" Derek asked, growling a little as he continued to attempt to make the tourniquet tighter on his arm. 

"Well, because the cutting through the flesh, the sawing of the bone, and especially the blood!" Stiles practically yelled.

Derek let his arm hit the table with a loud thud, rolling his eyes as he gave up on getting the band to go any tighter. "You faint at the sight of blood?" He asked incredulously, finding it hard to believe someone training to be an Emissary could be such a wimp. 

"No, but I might at the sight of a chopped off arm!" Stiles said pointedly. 

Derek sighed and shook his head. He was started to feel really weak now and he didn't have time to argue or wait any longer. "Alright, fine. How about this? Either you cut off my arm, or I cut off your head?"  

Stiles gaped at him for the moment before reeling back. "Okay, you know what," Stiles said, throwing his hands up in front of himself as he spoke. "I'm so not buying your threats any-" 

Derek reached across the table suddenly and grabbed Stiles by the front of his shirt, pulling him forward so he was leaning over the table and right in Derek's face. Which, yeah, totally the wrong time to notice he has pretty green/hazel eyes. 

"Oh, my god! Okay, alright. Bought. Sold. Totally. I'll do it." He rambled as the pale sweaty wolf glared at him murderously. "I'll do it." Suddenly Derek started to look worse, the color of his face draining further. "What. What are you doing?" He asked as he watched the wolf let go of his shirt and lean away from him and over the edge of the table quickly. 

The next thing Stiles knew Derek was vomiting back ooze all over the floor. 

"Holy god, what the hell is that?" He asked, too freaked out to recognize the substance. 

Derek gasped for air and tried to ignore the horrible taste in his mouth. "It's my body trying to heal it's self." He said between gasping breaths.  

"Well it's not doing a very good job of it." Stiles said as he tried not to be sick himself at the sight of the mix of blood and wolfsbane that Derek had just vomited all over the floor. 

Derek turned his head and looked up at Stiles from where he was still bent over the table. "Now. You gotta do it now." He said breathlessly.  

Stiles looked from Derek's face to his arm. "Look, honestly I don't think I can." He said, face contorting and stomach giving another roll at the thought of it. 

"Just do it!" Derek yelled, bracing himself against the table in preperation for what he was asking the teen to do. 

Stiles flinched at the tone of Derek's voice and before he knew what he was doing his hands were on the saw. "Oh, my god! Okay, okay." He said, looking at Derek and silently praying that Scott and Laura would burst through the door any second now, because that would be great. 

Stiles swallowed hard and held the saw so it was about an inch from where Derek had tied the tourniquet, bracing himself for the horror he was about to witness. "Oh, my god! Alright, here we go!" He said loudly, finger ready to pull the trigger that ran the saw. 

"Stiles!" Scott yelled from the front of the clinic. 

Stiles' whole body sagged in relief at the sound of his best friends voice. "Scott?" He called back, hands loosening their grip on the saw slightly. 

A moment later Scott and Laura rushed in. They both took one look at the scene before them and froze. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Scott yelled before rushing in. 

Stiles sighed and dropped the saw to the table with a loud clatter. "Oh, you just prevented a lifetime full of nightmares." He said in relief. 

Laura remained frozen in the doorway a moment longer before rushing to Derek and pulling him to stand. He looked much worse than she had been expecting. He was sickly pale and covered in sweat. The veins in his arm were almost all black now and the smell of the blood, wolfsbane and bile on the floor made her feel sick. "I've got you little brother, you're going to be okay." She said, taking his face in her hands and giving him a reassuring smile. 

Derek gave her a small shaky smile and looked to Scott. "Did you get it?" He asked weakly. 

Nodding Scott reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out the bullet. 

Derek took it and held it up in front of his face. 

"What are you gonna do with it?" Stiles asked, looking from the bullet in Derek's hands to the bottles of herbs Deaton keeps off to the side of the room wondering if Derek will need any of them. Derek had told him before he knew how to use the wolfsbane to make an antidote, so Stiles didn’t need to do anything once they got the bullet.

"I'm gonna... I'm gonna.." Derek began but suddenly he was falling. Laura managed to grab him before he hit the floor, but the bullet fell and rolled under a shelf, falling through the flood drain with a barely audible –ting- sound to the only human in the room. 

Stiles jumped the second Derek began to drop, wrapping his arms around the wolf's waist while Laura had her own arms around Derek shoulder. Together they lowered him to the floor while Scott dropped to down and reached under the shelf to try and retrieve the bullet.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Scott muttered as he followed the path of the bullet and tried to get his fingers far enough down the drain to grab the bullet where it laid.

"Derek!" Laura said, voice cracking in panic as she and Stiles maneuvered Derek so he was on his back on the cold concrete floor. "Derek, wake up!" She yelled, shaking his shoulders as she did so.

"What the hell are we gonna do?" Stiles asked, grabbing Derek's face and giving him a quick slap on the cheek before looking to Scott when it did nothing to rouse the unconscious wolf.

"I don't know! I can't reach it!" Scott shouted, still trying and failing to his fingers that extra bit further to grab the bullet.

"Use your claws!" Laura barked, voice going hard with the command and her eyes briefly glowing red as she looked to Scott.

"He's not waking up! I think he's drying!" Stiles added, voice going even higher with panic while slapping Derek's face again, much harder this time and not even eliciting a flinch from the man.

"Come on!" Scott muttered as he closed his eyes tight and tried to focus on his nails growing into claws while still straining to get his fingers farther into the drain.

A moment later Scott was up and pulling away from the shelf. "I got it!!" He yelled as he scurried back across the room.

Laura let go of Derek's shoulder then and turned to grab the bullet from Scott.

Stiles wasn't listening though, he was pulling back from Derek, fist balled and ready to strike."Please don't kill me for this!" He said before bringing his fist down to slam into the wolf's jaw, hard. It hurt like hell, pain shooting up his knuckles and radiating into his wrist from the force. "Ow, ow! God!"

Derek gasped and suddenly his eyes were open and he was looking around the room wildly. "Give me the bullet!" He said, like he hadn't just been unconscious a moment ago.

Laura turned back, bullet in hand as she grabbed one of Derek's arms and helped Stiles pull her brother to his feet.

As soon as he was up Derek took the bullet from Laura's hand and bit down on the bullet its self, hand gripping the casing tightly as he pulled hard, a moment later the bullet was dislodged and he spit it onto the table before banging the hollow point on the metal surface and emptying the ground up wolfsbane from inside.

Before anyone could ask if he needed anything Laura was handing Derek a lighter and Derek lit the mix on fire. There was a flash as the herbs burst into flames and quickly fizzled out to a pile of smoldering ash.

"Oh my god.." Stiles muttered, watching the herbs continue to smolder and release a sort of purple smoke.

Derek quickly leaned over, inhaling as much of the smoke as possible, which, ew, that can't be good for the sinuses or lunges. And then he scooped up the ash and promply pressed it into the hole in his arm.

Both Stiles and Scott watched in horror as Derek pressed the ash in with a finger, grunting in pain before stumbling sideways to smash into Stiles then fall to the ground and screaming in agony.

Laura jumped, grabbing Derek's shoulders to hold him somewhat steady as he writhed and screamed in pain.

For a moment it looked like the veins in Laura's hand were turning black as she gripped Derek's shoulders, but Stiles was pretty sure that he was just seeing things. After a long moment Derek settled, going lax against the cold floor before the black veins receded and the hole in his arm healed up quickly with one final whips of purple-ish smoke escaping at the last moment.

"That.. Was.. Awesome! Yes!" Stiles exclaimed, grinning and pumping a fist victoriously at the two wolves on the floor before him.

Laura rolled her eyes and helped Derek up to stand carefully.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked, ducking his head a little to look Derek in the eyes as he came to stand.

"Well, except for the agonizing pain." Derek said tersely, tone conveying how stupid he found the question from the unknown Beta in the room.

"Derek." Laura chided.

"I'm guessing the ability to use sarcasm is a good sign of health." Stiles quipped.

Derek just glared at him in response before setting about removing the tourniquet that was still firmly around his bicep.

"Thank you." Laura said sincerely, smiling at Scott and Stiles.

"Sure, no problem. S'what I'm here for, I guess." Stiles replied, watching Derek as he looked around for his discarded and blooded shirt. 

Laura looked to Scott then. "We should talk. Not now obviously, but tomorrow, if that works for you." Scott nodded his agreement and she spoke again. "Have Stiles give you my number. I'm gonna get this one "she said, gesturing to Derek who now had on his shirt and jacket again and was looking better than he was just a moment ago, but still pissed. "back to our hotel so he can get some rest. Thank you again." She finished, smiling at both of them warmly again before hooking an arm around one of Derek's and leading him out of the clinic with no protest on his part.

As soon as they were gone Scott looked to Stiles his face conveying how tired he was. "Dude, that was insane." He said as he practically melted against the wall behind him. "I don’t know how I'm gonna survive all this. I'm a werewolf, my girlfriends family hunts werewolves, there's a crazy alpha after me to join its pack, and now these two show up and I don't know what the hell is going on anymore." He said exasperatedly.

Stiles sighed and ran his hands over his buzzcut. "I know, buddy. We'll figured it out together, okay? For now let's just go home. My dad's on overnight again, you wanna come over and play video games until we crash? I don't know about you, but I could go for a few dozen rounds of halo and pizza right now." He said with a weary grin.

Scott seemed to brighten a bit at the suggestion of halo and pizza. "Sounds awesome. We gotta swing by Allison's first though. I ditched my bike in some bushes at the end of her street when I met up with Laura." He said sheepishly, ducking his head a little so he had to look up at Stiles despite them being the same height.

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Of course, come on." He said, throwing an arm around Scott's shoulders and leading the way out of the clinic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this part was a hot of fun to write. I really hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. As always feel free to ask questions or leave comments. See you next time, folks!


	9. Ashes to Ashes

Saturday morning Stiles awoke up to his phone ringing loudly at 9:04am. He let out a groan upon realizing the time and answered without looking at the caller ID. "This had better be important. Like, life or death level important, or I will hang up on you." He grumbled into the phone, running a hand over his face before rubbing at his eyes tiredly.

"Well, good morning to you, too." Laura Hale sing-songed over the line cheerily. 

Stiles jumped up at the realization of who was on the other end of the line. "Oh, god! Is somebody dead? Did someone actually die! I was just joking about the whole life and death thing!" He blurted quickly, forcing himself into a sitting position fast enough that the room spun a little.

"Stiles, breathe." Laura said calmly.

Stiles took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then another and another for good measure.

"No one is dead, or dying as far as I know, so relax. I'm calling because Scott never texted me and I wanted to ask for his number so I can set up a meeting with him about learning to control his wolf-side." Laura explained, her voice never wavering from its calm reassuring tone.

Stiles nodded along absently before realizing she couldn't see him. "Yeah? He's right here actually, want me to wake him up so you two can talk?" He asked, looking down at his best friend, who somehow slept through the phone ringing as well as Stiles' mini panic attack.

Scott was yet again passed out on a pile of blankets and pillows on the floor beside Stiles' bed. His mouth hung open as he snored softly, one eyelid twitching at random as he dreamed.

"If you don't mind." Laura said sweetly.

Stiles lowered the phone away from his ear and leaned over the edge of the bed to look down at his friend. "Dude." He started, voice a bit low "Scotty, wake up."

Scott grunted and turned his head to nuzzle into the pillow, not waking in the slightest.

Stiles rolled his eyes before trying again, much louder this time. "Scott! Yo, Scotty! Phone!" He yelled into his friends ear.

Scott jumped up at that, nearly bashing his head into Stiles' in the process. "What?" He asked, looking around frantically.

"Dude, Laura Hale is on the phone." Stiles said, holding said phone out for Scott to take. "She wants to talk to you about wolfie stuff." He clarified, wiggling the phone held between his fingers for unneeded emphasis.

Scott took the phone and with that Stiles forced himself out of bed and headed down stairs. He needed coffee, like, now. And he didn't need to listen in on Scott's conversation. Scott would fill him in on the details later, so why sit around when he could be making coffee. And bacon. Dealing with angry werewolves who try to make you cut off their arms totally makes one deserving of bacon.

Breakfast was almost done cooking by the time Scott finally stumbled down stairs and made his way into the kitchen. Stiles looked over his shoulder and watched Scott flop heavily into a chair at the kitchen table. "Well? How'd the talk with Laura go?" He asked before turning his attention back to the sizzling pan in front of him.

"I'm meeting her and Derek at the preserve at noon to work out, like, a training routine to help me learn control." Scott explained with a yawn. "I don't know how to feel about all of this, man. What if it doesn’t work?"

"If it doesn't work then we find a safe place and I'll put you under supernatural lockdown every full moon." Stiles said with a shrug as he scooped a heaping portion of scrambled eggs out onto two plates for himself and Scott. 

Scott blinked up at Stiles as he turned and set their plates on the table. "Would that work?" He asked as he picked up a fork and poked at the hot plate of food before him.

Stiles took a seat across from Scott before speaking. "Yeah, I mean, it should. If I make a mountain ash barrier you won't be going anywhere. That stuff is like a force field that keeps werewolves and other creatures out. Or in this case it would keep you in. I have a big jar of it in the back of my closet for that we can use."

Scott paused mid bite and blinked at his friend. "That's what that stuff is?"

"Yeah, what'd you think it was?" Stiles said with a snort before digging into his breakfast.

"I thought those were the ashes from that Boa you had as a pet in middle school." Scott said, scrunching his nose in disgust at the memory. "When you didn't want to talk about what happened to him I figured he died, then I found the jar, like, a week later and I just assumed.." Scott trailed off, giving a sheepish look before stuffing a strip of bacon into his mouth.

"What? No, dad made me sell him when he started to get too big to fit in that fish tank I kept him in. Some family, like, two towns over has him." Stiles explained, waving a hand dismissively between bites of bacon. "I was just upset that my dad made me get rid of him, that's why I didn't want to talk about it."

They fell into a relaxed silence after that, both focused on eating their breakfast and not on the fact that their world was being turned upside down around them.


	10. Hide and Seek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sooooo freaking sorry that I didn't post this sooner! I got sucked into writing another story and spaced. I legit thought I posted it until a friend made a comment just now!

Stiles didn't need werewolf super senses to know Scott was nervous. He was slouched down in the passenger seat of the jeep, arms wrapped around himself, looking small and unsure as they drove out to the preserve. 

"Try to lighten up, Scotty. They just want to help you. And if either of them try anything shady I'll hit them both with mountain ash and get us out of there before either of them knows what hit 'em." Stiles said confidently, shooting Scott a wink when he looked up from under his bangs to give his friend a questioning look.

Scott smiled, but didn't say anything.

Not long after that they found the road Laura had told them to take, it was dirt, and not maintained anymore, and Stile's knew where it led long before he saw the burnt remains of the Hale house ahead.

Scott scrunched his nose as the drew closer. "Where are we?"

"Hale property. That's what's left of the Hale house." Stiles explained, pointing to the charred remains before them. Beside the house sat a sleek black car, Laura was leaning against the driver's side door as they pulled up alongside.

"Find the place okay?" She asked as Stiles' put the jeep in park and he and Scott exited the vehicle.

Stiles nodded as he walked around to stand beside Scott "Yup. So, what's the plan?" He asked as he scratched the back of his head anxiously. He didn't see Derek anywhere, Scott had said he was going to be here, hadn't he? Maybe he was too sick still to come out, Stiles wondered.

Laura smiled at the two teens before pushing away from the Camero and looking to the house behind her. "The plan is to work on building on Scott's new senses. So to start we're going to do some exercises that born wolves do as kids to help them learn control early on." Laura explained, turning back with an even broader smile now. 

"Ookay.. Sound's reasonable." Stiles conceded as he tried to remember if he ever read anything about this in his studies on werewolves.

"Derek is hiding somewhere in the woods, you have to find him, but only by scent." Laura further explained as she turned and opened the driver side door of the car. A moment later she was holding a pair of large headphones and a leather jacket that undoubtedly belonged to Mr. Tall Dark and Grumpy. 

"Wait, so we're playing hide and seek?" Scott asked, scrunching his face in confusion as he took the jacket and headphones from Laura.

"Yup!" Laura beamed, green eyes twinkling in the noon sun. "Derek ran all over the preserve before settling in to hide, so you have to figure out which trail to follow and track him down. Shouldn't be too hard." She explained lightly, leaning back against the car again and tucking her hands into her pants pockets. "Keep the headphones on the whole time, okay? No taking them off until you find Derek and no using your wolf sight to look for visual clues. Sound like something you can handle big guy?" 

Scott looked to Stiles for reassurance, receiving a nod of approval before putting on the headphones and plugging the cord into his phone. A moment later the music coming from them was loud enough that even Stiles' winced. Then Scott put the jacket to his face and took a long whiff. His face scrunched up again, like he wasn't sure he liked what he smelled, but he took another whiff before handing the jacket to Laura and taking off jogging into the woods on the other side of the house.

Once they were alone Stiles looked to Laura. "So.." He started. "How's Derek doing after the whole.. "He gestured to his left arm. "almost dying, thing.."

Laura's broad smiles settled into a more subdued one, barley there as she eyed Stiles appraisingly. "He's doing alright. I tried to get him to stay at the hotel and rest, but he's stubborn. Insisted he was good to help today."

Stiles let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, his stomach doing a strange little flip when he heard that Derek was okay. "Good. Yeah, that's good. I mean that he's better, not that he's being stubborn." Stiles caught himself starting to ramble and promptly bit his lip to shut himself up.

Laura let out a small laugh at that. "Thank you, again. He told me you refused to cut his arm off until the last minute."

"Yeah, well in all honesty I didn't even want to do it then. Dude's kind of terrifying when he has his mind set on something."

Laura shook her head, still giving that small smile. "You have no idea. He wasn't always like that though. When we were growing up he was a really sweet kid, a total dork actually. If he wasn't off with his friends playing basketball he was at home reading a book or playing with our little sister."

Stiles balked at that. "Seriously?" He tried to imagine a young Derek playing with his little sister (who Stiles knows was in his grade, but doesn't remember in the slightest) or being anything other than a total grouch. He remembered seeing him at the police station once or twice, but that was after the fire and he never looked anything but stone faced.

Laura nodded, smile growing wider again. "He was on the honor roll too." She said with a mischievous glint in her eye.

Stiles raised a brow at her, trying not to bust out laughing at the thought of Derek Hale being an honor roll student. "He's going to be pissed if he finds out you told me all this." He said, trying his hardest not to laugh, corners of his mouth twitching as he bit his bottom lip.

At that Laura full on cackled. "Oh, he already knows! I can hear him growling from his hiding spot." She said between bouts of laughter. "It's a good thing Scott has on those headphones, he would have Derek dead to rights with all the noise he's making." She managed to say as she finally calmed her laughter, wiping at the corners of her eyes as she straightened back up.

Stiles laughed as well, a whole body laugh that had him reeling back then doubling over, imagining Derek hunkered down somewhere, probably a hollow tree or under a rock face, as he growled at his big sister for killing his image of dark and broodiness.

After they both regained their composure Stiles looked to Laura, both smiling easily and leaning against their respective vehicles in mirrored relaxed poses. "It's hard to believe you two are siblings, you act so different." Stiles find himself saying. "Though the eyes and facial expressions are a dead giveaway" he added with a smirk.

Laura's smile grew, then her expression turned sad. "Derek isn't comfortable being here. If I'm completely honest I'm not either, but you and Scott need our help. The people of Beacon Hills need our help, so here we are."

Stiles snorted. "You guys are like super heroes.." He mused, trailing off as he imagined the two of them wolfed out and taking down bad guys in cheesy costumes.

"Complete with a tragic back story and a cool car." Laura said with a wink before turning to face the woods to her left. Stiles followed her line of sight and watched as Derek and Scott came trudging out towards them. Derek's face and ears were a bit red and he was pointedly not looking at Stiles.

"Good job!" Laura yelled to them before pulling out her phone and checking the time. "Only took you 12 minutes to find him." She said, eyebrows raising in surprise at that. "That's pretty impressive actually..."

Scott beamed at the praise and fist bumped Stiles with his free hand as he handed Laura back her headphones. "What's next?" He asked, obviously getting excited about this whole training thing now that he's into it.

Laura took the headphones and looked to Derek, who rolled his eyes before turning and running back into the woods without a word. Stiles did his best not to watch his ass as he ran away, he really did, honest.

"Next we're giving Derek a head start, and then you have to chase him down. You can use your hearing this time." Laura explained as she opened the door to the Camero again, a moment later the headphones were put away and she was tossing Scott a water bottle which he drank from greedily.

"So, what do I do when I find him?" Scott asked, screwing the cap back onto the bottle a moment later.

"Tackle him." Laura said matter-o-factly. 

"Wait, What? Really?" Scott asked, giving both Laura and Stiles a look of uncertainty. Last time he tackled someone it hadn't ended well and the thought of doing it again made his stomach twist.

"Yes, really. Don't worry, you won't hurt him, and even if you do he'll heal." Laura said, her tone reassuring but still firm. "If you start to feel like you're losing control at any point I want you to think about something or someone that anchors you. Your anchor is what keeps you human, keeps you in control. For Derek it's anger, for me it's Derek. When you start to feel like you might lose control just breathe and remember your anchor and you will regain control." Laura explained as she walked over and put a hand on Scott's shoulder, giving a slight squeeze as she looked Scott in the eyes.

Stiles watched closely as Laura and Scott interacted. He had read about wolves needing an anchor, but he hadn't really figured out how to explain it to Scott yet. So it was nice that Laura was doing this for him. "She's right, Scotty. You can do this. Allison has been acting as your anchor this whole time, right? When you focus on her it's helped so far, you said so yourself."

Scott looked from Laura to Stiles and back. "Alright. You're right. I think I can do this." He said before looking back to the woods. "Should I go after him yet?" He asked.

Laura nodded and took her hand from his shoulder. "Go get 'em, kid." She said as she took a step back.

Scott smiled to the both of them before taking off running in the direction Derek had headed minutes before.

Stiles watched his friend run off again before looking back to Laura. "You're a good Alpha." He said, giving her an easy smile and crossing his arms over his chest.

Laura gave him that small smile again, ducking her head a little like the praise embarrassed her. "Thanks." 

They spent the next few hours alternating between Scott tracking down Derek in various ways. He only lost control a few times, but quickly regained it by thinking about Allison; a fact that he was a little embarrassed about, but he quickly got over it.

That night, after leaving Scott to catch a ride with Derek and Laura, Stiles happened upon the scene at the video store.


	11. An Alpha's Command

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, I'm going to try and alternate between writing this and another story, which is something I suck at. So please bear with me here. As always i hope you enjoy the chapter.

That following Monday Stiles wasn't all that surprised that Lydia wasn't in school. He was, however, surprised by how drugged up she was when he went to check on her. Even more surprised when he found the video of the Alpha on her phone, which he promptly misappropriated (read stole). 

As soon as he was in the Jeep he forwarded the video to himself, then Laura with the note of 'Video of the Alpha, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!'

A few minutes later as he was driving his phone began to ring. He pulled over and answered it quickly. "Hello?" He asked, nerves making his voice tremble a bit.

"Stiles, who took this video?" Came Laura's slightly panicked voice from the other end of the line. Stiles could just hear what sounded like people talking in the background and automatic doors opening and closing.

"A girl in my class took it, she was at the video store last night when the Alpha killed the clerk. I just left her place." Stiles explained, picking up Lydia's phone and tapping the video open. He watched it once more before deleting it and tossing the phone back to the seat with a huff.

"Oh, god! Is she okay?" Laura asked, tone going high with concern.

"Yeah. I mean, she probably has PTSD, and she's drugged out of her mind at the moment, but she wasn't hurt or anything like that so I think she'll be okay with some time." He replied quickly, licking his lips after and wishing he had some chapstick all of the sudden.

"Do you know anything else? Was anyone with her when this happened?" Laura asked, tone going back to her usual level of confidence, an attempt to calm Stiles that he appreciated.

"Uh, yeah. Her boyfriend was in the store. Jackson. He was the one who found the clerk dead. I came across the scene on my way home last night, but he'd already been sent home by the time I got there. The partial report was on my dad's desk when I went to talk to him this morning, but I didn't get a good look so I don't know all the details." He explained, rubbing at his buzzcut with his free hand, trying to calm himself down a little more.

"Do you know Jackson well enough to ask him about what happened?" Laura questioned, the sound of echoing footsteps coming over the line now as she walked down a hallway somewhere.

"That would be a big fat no. We're on the lacrosse team together, but he hates my guts. He wouldn't even tell his best friend what he saw last night, so there's no way he'll tell me. I've got a better chance of finding the report on my dad's desk or maybe his computer." Stiles speculated.

"Alright, can you take a look for me?" Laura asked, voice imploring but still firm over the line.

Stiles heaved a heavy sigh, running the hand that had been rubbing at his hair down over his face as he moved around anxiously in his seat. "Yeah, yeah, alright. I can go take a look. Can you do me a favor?" 

"Of course. What is it?" Laura asked, the echoing sound of her footsteps halting.

"I can't get ahold of Scott. He ditched with Allison, could you try calling him or howling or something to get his attention." The last part was said with a nervous chuckle. "I'm running out of idea's here and I have no idea where they went." 

"Of course. I'll see what I can do." Laura said, there was the sound of a door opening closing over the line along with her words and Stiles wondered briefly where she was.

"Thank you." Stiles said, shifting around in his seat some more. "I need to go, I only have, like, an hour before my dad gets off shift and I'm still 15 minutes from my house. That's not a lot of time to snoop."

"Go, I have something to take care of then I'll go look for Scott. I'll send Derek out to look as well." 

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Stiles said with a sigh of relief. 

"No problem. And, Stiles, be safe." Laura said, something in her tone making Stiles' nerves relax a little further.

"Yeah, you too." He said softly before hanging up and tossing his phone on the passenger side of the seat alongside Lydia's. With a sigh he threw the jeep back into drive and took off towards home.

As soon as the line beeped with the end of the call Laura pocked her phone with a sigh and let her forehead rest against the door she was standing behind. The video had her more shaken than she let on. 

Whoever this Alpha was, they could do more than just a partial shift. It wasn't a full shift like she could do, their body looked all wrong. But it still meant they were powerful and possibly out of their mind if the old saying about the shape you take has any truth to it. She had met many Alphas in her short life, and none of them had looked like that when they shifted.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked, coming up behind Laura to place a hand on her shoulder and give a small squeeze.

Turning away from the door she pulled her phone back out and opened the video to play it for him. "Scott's MIA with the Argent girl and Stiles just sent me this." She explained, watching her brothers mask of grumpy indifference melt to shock, eyebrows raising high on his forehead at the monster that leapt across the small screen.

"That's... not good." He said, at a loss for words.

Laura nodded. "I knew we should have moved back last year." She said after a beat, pocketing her phone again and casting a look across the small room to where her uncle Peter sat in his wheelchair; a blanket over his lap and his fuzzy robe pulled tight around his shoulders. His gaze was unfocused but aimed at the window and seeing him like that still made her heart ache.

"Laure" Derek began, tone a bit irritated.

"No, Derek, don't." She said, voice clipped and giving her brother a glare with flashing red eyes. "If we had moved back this past summer like I had wanted to we could have been here to protect Linda. We could have stopped that Omega or whoever they were from killing her and becoming the crazed Alpha they are now." She said before walking past her brother, who now had his head ducked and eyes locked on the floor. She came to stand beside Peter and knelt down so she had to look up a little to meet his eyes.

Derek turned and watched her as she took his hands in her own and gave a squeeze in an attempt to drain any pain he might be in. Her veins went black for the briefest of moments before fading. It made him feel better that Peter wasn't really in pain anymore, but the thought that he might be still made him feel uncomfortable. "I told you I didn't want to come back. I would have been fine alone in New York." He huffed, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

"You know I don't want to be that far away from you." She said, looking to her brother sadly then back to her uncle. "I already feel horrible for being so far away from Peter. I don't think I could handle being away from you too. It would break me." She said as she let her head fall so it rested on her and Peter's joint hands. "No matter what happens we are staying here once this is all over. Understood? You can find another job at the school here easily enough. Maybe you can even ask out that emissary in training that keeps getting your heart rate up." She said, tone still sad but also teasing in the end as she lifted her head to look at her uncle again.

Derek sputtered at that, face heating up against his will. "He makes me nervous. I can smell the energy coming off of him. It's unsettling." He tried to justify, squaring his shoulders and crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's not the only reason." Laura said, hazel-green eyes never leaving Peter's unblinking blue ones. "I know your type Derek, he fit's it to a T, and that's what really freaks you out. That and the fact that he knows what you are and isn't afraid."

"Whatever, can we just drop it and focus on why we're here." He grumbled, brow furrowing as he watched his sister and uncle.

"Fine." Laura said with a shake of her head before squeezing Peter's hands gently. "Uncle Peter," She began softly. "I know you're in there somewhere. I can still feel you in the back of my mind. We need you back. We need you to fight." As she spoke, her eyes started to glow, tone going from soft to strong and commanding.

Derek turned away then to keep an eye on the door and window, making sure none of the doctors or nurses were coming. He also just couldn't bear to watch. He felt Peter's presence too, but a small part of him was afraid it was just a phantom presence, like how when he awoke from a nightmare he swore he could still feel the rest of his family.

"Do you hear me? Someone is giving teenagers the bite and killing people. You need to snap out of it! Snap out of it and WAKE UP!" She barked, squeezing his hands harder. When he didn't so much as flinch she let go of his hands, eyes going back to their light color. 

Derek turned back to her, giving a sympathetic look. "Let's go, you said Scott's missing, right?"

Heaving a sigh Laura forced herself to stand and looking over at her little brother with almost sad eyes. "Yeah, let's go." She said before leading the way.

Neither of them saw Peter's hand twitch as they left.


	12. Love Hurts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I felt inspired and wrote the next chapter and my original plan was to wait until January to post it, but I decided fuck it! So here you go! Enjoy!

When Stiles found out that his dad had been hurt in the chaos brought on by the mountain lion in the schools parking lot on the night of the parent teacher conferences, he lost it. Every one of his tattoos had gone crazy, dancing across the skin of his arms as a they tried to focus the burst of raw energy that was created by his rapid shift in emotions. Before he knew it, the bulb in his lamp had exploded and his printer was fried. Good thing he had left his laptop on his bed a good 10 feet away...

Now here it was, two days later, and he still wanted to strangle Scott. So, he had been avoiding him. Because while he was mad, no way he wanted to risk his spark causing his best friend to actually burst into flames thanks to excess magic and an overactive imagination.

When Scott sat down beside him in math class it was so tempting to get up and move, but then Scott was talking and he had missed most of it.

"That I went to Derek and Laura for help." Scott finished, voice conveying that he was most likely giving the back of Stiles' head his infamous kicked puppy eyes at this very moment.

"If I was talking to you, I would tell you I'm happy that you're taking things seriously, but obviously, I'm not talking to you." Stiles said with a huff and a roll of his eyes. He resituated himself in his seat, grip tightening on his pencil and skin itching with the pent up energy that the tattoo's on his arms could not burn up fast enough. A moment later the bell rang and he hunched forward in his seat, trying to will away the urge to ask what Derek and Laura had to say about helping Scott.

After a moment more of fighting it, he turned in his seat to face Scott. "What'd they say?"

"I'll tell you after class." Scott replied with a smile before pointing to their teacher, who was glaring at the bot of them for not listening to her.

"So, Derek says you need to tap into your animal side and get angry. And Laura say's you need to also learn to tune out the outside world and focus on your anchor. Correct me if I'm wrong, but every time you get angry, you try to kill someone. And that someone is usually me." Stiles reiterated as they started to walk down the hall together. He readjusted his backpack anxiously as they walked along, still buzzing with too much energy under his skin.

"I know. Derek said he didn't know if he could teach me, then Laura smacked him upside the head and said anyone can be taught, it just takes time. Which, I apparently don't have a lot of. I have to learn to control it." Scot said with a wave of his hand.

 "Well how are they going to teach you to do that? I mean, they made a lot of progress with controlling your hearing and stuff with that one day of training, but you kind of lose yourself when your shifted." Stiles questioned.

"I don't know. I don’t think they do either." Scott said, head ducking a bit in an attempt to hide the worried look on his face.

"Okay, when are you seeing them again?" Stiles asked as he stopped walking and turned to face Scott.

"Tonight. They're picking me up at the animal clinic after work." Scott said, looking Stiles in the eyes with a confused expression.

"After work? Alright, well, that gives me till the end of the school day then." He said, rocking back and forth on his heels as a plan formulated in his head.

"To do what?" Scott asked slowly, face scrunching like he couldn't understand what Stiles was doing in the slightest.

"To teach you myself." Stiles said resolutely before starting to walk down the hall again towards the lunch room.

After a brief lunch, complete with Scott ignoring him in favor of watching Allison form behind one of Stiles' own textbooks, he ditched Scott to set his plan in motion. Coach did the same thing every day at this time. He'd finish his lunch, grab a magazine and head of the faculty bathroom, leaving his office unattended for no less than ten minutes.

It was times like this that Stiles was thankful for his ability to use magic, because while the door was locked thanks to Coach's paranoia, he now knew a spell that would open it.

Looking around quickly to make sure the coast was clear, he knelt before the door to Coache's office. He held his hand about an inch away from the knob, fingers spread wide and palm facing the key hole. He closed his eyes, focusing on the lock. It was a standard super cheap school lock. Three pins in the tumbler and hopefully that meant less room for error with the spell.

Letting out a slow breath Stiles focused some of the excess energy crackling under his skin to the open palm of his hand. He visualized a key in his mind, sliding into the lock and making the tumblers click up into their correct places. Letting out another breath he twisted his hand sharply, mimicking the direction the key would turn, and a moment later the door opened with a soft click.

Stiles opened his eyes, staring in disbelief at the now open door. "Yes!" He shouted, pumping his fist victoriously before both hands flew to his mouth and he looked around quickly to make sure no one had heard and was coming to investigate. 

Seeing that the room was still empty he quickly got to his feet and stepped into the office, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could before turning to begin his search. It didn't take him long to find Coach's heart monitor in his briefcase, or his phone in his desk drawer. He made a mental note to put them both someplace random later just to mess with the man.

Once that was taken care of, he grabbed Scott and his lacrosse equipment from the locker room before heading out to the field. 

He had to admit, this plan was brilliant for a multitude of reasons. They could work on Scott's control. He could get rid of some of the excess energy that was making his ADHD go haywire, and he could work on his anger towards Scott. Everyone wins.

Once Scott was all hooked up he taped his hands behind his back and moved a good fifteen feet away. 

"Starting to think this was a really bad idea." Scott said solemnly.

Stiles just chuckled to himself before scooping up a ball and whipping it at Scott. The first hit was to his leg, and he flinched at the hit, but mostly held his ground.

Glancing down at the monitor, Stiles saw that it said 115 and decided not to go easy on the other teen. He let out a breath, letting some of the energy from his spark feed up through his lacrosse stick into the second ball. A moment later he tossed it, hitting Scott in the jaw.

Scott stumbled with the hit, blinking and letting out a grunt of pain. "Okay, that one kinda hurt."

Scooping up the next ball and focusing energy into it with one hand, Stiles waved at Scott with the other. "Quiet. Remember, you're supposed to be thinking about your heart rate. About staying calm." He said before grabbing the stick with both hands and flicking the next ball so it would his Scott's shoulder.

Scott side stepped so the ball only grazed his shoulder. "Stay calm. Staying calm." He said, bouncing in place a bit. "Staying totally calm. There's no balls flying at my face." He told himself, groaning again when the next ball hit him in the throat.

Stiles did his best not to laugh, he really did. It felt good to use up the energy that had been buzzing under his skin for days now. And as much as he loved Scott, it felt really, really good to hit him repeatedly with magically hardened lacrosse balls. Not that he would admit to altering them with magic in any way.

"Son of a bitch!" Scott cursed after a particularly hard hit.

"You know, I think my aim is actually improving." Stiles remarked with a smile. 

"Wonder why." Scott snarked, glaring at Stiles.

"Don't get angry" Stiles chided, taking a look down at the monitor and seeing it read 129.

"I'm not getting angry." Scott huffed, face and voice doing little to support his argument.

A few hit's later Scott was on the ground gasping and groaning and when Stiles looked down the monitor was going crazy. Picking it up he saw it reach 160 and he stared to worry. "Scott?" He said, looking to his best friend, how had ripped the tape biding his hands and was now clawing at the dirt as he tried to calm down.

After that they went inside to put away Stiles equipment and try to figure out if there's anything else they can do about Scott's control issues. The whole while something new was making Stiles' tattoos act up and he couldn't figure out what it was. He got out just about all of the pent-up energy he had from the past few days, and he was already used to the way his skin itched around wolves already, so he couldn't figure out what was causing the runes on his forearms to flash green and his skin to tingle in an unpleasant way now.

The feeling eased up as they made their way to class and he quickly forgot all about it once Coach started to lay in on Scott for not having done the reading for class. He legit thought he was going to have to fake a heart attack or something to distract everyone from Scott turning when all of the sudden the heart monitor started to go down. That's when he noticed that Allison had leaned forward to grab Scott's hand while Coach continued to rant.

After that he came up with one more plan to help Scott, and he really hoped it worked because it was probably going to result in one of both of them getting in huge trouble.

Ten minutes later Scott survived getting his ass beat AND he successfully controlled his anger! But of course, Harris was the one to catch them and rather than giving detention to the guys that beat up Scott, they were the lucky recipients instead.

They made up during detention, and with that Stiles drove Scott to the clinic. They found Laura and Derek in Deaton's waiting area while the older man was tending to cat who had apparently eaten her owners favorite bracelet.

"Stiles." Laura said, perking up from her place in one of the wooden chairs. "How's your dad?"

"He's doing better, thanks for asking." Stile said, looking from Laura, who seemed happy to see him, to Derek, who was pointedly not looking at him. "So, listen, we made some progress on Scott's little control issue, and I think we've almost got it taken care of. Just need you guys to put him through his paces to see if it really worked." Stiles explained, bringing a hand up to rub at the back of his head.

Laura raised an eyebrow at that, smiling at the spark before speaking. "Oh? Is that so?"

"He pelted me with lacrosse balls until I almost shifted then keyed a rednecks truck so him and his friends would kick my ass." Scott grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and giving Stiles al look like he was still a little upset about the whole thing.

"Hey, it worked, alright, let's not dwell on the methods and just focus on the results." Stiles said, raising a finger to silence Scott when he tried to argue.

Rolling his eyes, Derek got up from his chair and strode over to the two teens. Before anyone could blink he had grabbed Scott's arm and twisted to the point of hearing a snap from the teens wrist.

Scott cried out in pain, eyes flashing gold at the other Beta before he took a breath and calmed himself. "What the hell, man!" 

"It'll heal." He said, turning like he was going to walk way.

"Dude, if you're going to test him then give the guy some warning." Stiles said, smacking Derek on the shoulder and earning a look of 'you did not' complete with raised eyebrows and a piercing green glare.

"In the real world you don't always have a heads up. Say he gets tackled at lacrosse practice, or knocked over in the halls? He has to be able to reign it in at a moment's notice." Derek said pointedly, taking a step closer to Stiles and letting the difference in their size really show as he squared his shoulders and looked down at him.

"Derek." Laura chided, moving to stand.

Derek turned quickly, claws out and aimed for Scott's shoulder.

In an instant, Scott was holding Derek's wrist mid swing. And not only that, but he was fully shifted. He took a breath, letting go of Derek's hand before looking from him to Laura. "I can control it." He said before slowly shifting back and looking to Stiles, who had his had his sleeves pushed up and was seconds away from pushing out a pulse of energy that would have knocked both Beta's on their ass had things gone differently just now.

Stiles smiled, feeling very proud of his best friend at the moment. He looked from Scott to Derek and Laura. Laura was smiling, obviously proud as well. And Derek just looked done with this whole encounter.

A moment later Deaton was in the doorway to the exam room and clearing his throat. "While I hate to interrupt, Stiles, it's about time for our lesson. And I believe Scott has some practicing to do with the Hales." He said kindly.

With a huff Stiles deflated. "Yeah, sure, got it, Doc." He said with wave. "Scotty, call me later and let me know how it all went."

"Yeah, sure." He said, patting Stiles on the shoulder before turning to walk out the front door with Laura.

Stiles watched them all go to leave, Derek lingering a moment and looking at Stiles as if he was trying to make sense of him. He gave up after a beat and followed the others outside. 

With that Stiles turned on his heel and headed into the back of the clinic to start a lesson on using his spark to heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should be out at the end of the month/new years day. See you all then =)


	13. Saturday Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I am soooo sorry that I've been so slow to update. I got sucked into writing stories for another fandom and a major depressive episode but I'm back and I'll try to not make you wait more than a few weeks for another chapter.

The next day Stiles found Scott sulking in the halls before Chemistry. Allison had broken up with him that morning, saying that she didn't feel like she could trust him because he keeps lying to her. Which, was a fair point in all honestly, but Stiles' kept his mouth shut. 

Stiles, being the bestest of best bros, ran interference for the rest of the school week and traded seats with Scott when possible to keep a buffer between him and Allison. It was a bitch, and twice he had to threaten to use magic and or mountain ash on Scott, but he managed to do a decent job it keeping his friend from seeing Allison outside of class and going up to her to beg her to take him back. 

Finally, when Saturday rolled around Stiles decided it was time to launch operation 'Cheer up Scotty' into full action. 

He made his way to the front door of the McCall house at noon with two large pizzas carefully in his grasp. Atop them was balanced the newest Halo game, a 6pack of root beer, the biggest bag of ruffled chips he could find, and a 5lbs bag of gummy bears. Because fuck the cliché of ice cream after a breakup, gummy bears are superior and there's no risk of brain freeze. 

Carefully balancing everything on one hand, Stiles raised a fist and banged on the front door. About a minute later he was greeted with the sight of a sullen and notably unkempt Scott. He was wearing a pair of gray sweats and his favorite ratty t-shit from the concert they got to go to in 8th grade. It didn't even have a band name on it, just the logo for the venue. 

"Heeeey, Scotty. Ready for a day of junk food and getting your ass handed to you at Halo?" Stiles asked with a grin and a wink as he resured his grip on the armful of food stuffs he carried. 

"Shouldn't you be out helping Laura and Derek right now?" Scott asked, head tilting in that oddly puppy-like way of his, like he was honestly confused and surprised to see his best friend at his door. 

"Dude, seriously? I come bearing not one, but TWO meat lovers pizza's and your favorite soda, and this is the greeting I get? Rude." Stiles said as he pushed in past Scott and made for the other teens bedroom. "And no. I am under no obligation to help those two, today or any other day. I mean, I'm going to, obviously, but I don't have to. Also, according to Deaton they're spending the weekend scouring the preserve and the area around the video store for any clues they might have missed." 

Scott rolled his eyes as he followed Stiles up to his bedroom. "Laura asked me to help this morning, I figured she would have asked you too." 

Stiles shook his head as he sat the carefully balanced food stuffs on Scott's bed before speaking. "She asked Deaton, but he has vet type stuff to do. And I have homework, which I am neglecting in order to spend some quality time with my best bud. Now, are we gonna put a hurt on these snacks and play some Halo, or do you want to keep talking about the Hale's?" He asked in all seriousness before plopping down on the floor beside Scotts bed and shuffling the 6pack and other goodies atop the pizza boxes to the floor beside him. 

After a moments consideration Scott's mouth broke into a smile and he grabbed the game case from atop the pizza boxes and turned to get the xbox set up. "You think they'll find anything?" 

Stiles hummed around a large bite of pizza, taking a moment to chew before speaking. "I don't know. Maybe. Alphas have stronger senses than Betas so she's more likely to find something you or Derek missed. Didn't Laura go over that with you?" He asked before stuffing another bite into his mouth. 

Scott shrugged as he continued to poke at the tv and xbox. "She did. But I still don't get some of it. Like, why couldn't they find the Alphas scent in the video store? Shouldn't it have been all over the place?" He asked as he got the game popped into the console. 

"Some wolves can conceal their scent. It takes years to learn, but it's doable. Mean's whoever this Alpha is they're probably older. And that means they're probably a born wolf." Stiles said with a shrug before taking the offered xbox controller and stuffing the crust from his slice of pizza into his mouth. 

Scott made a noise of surprise as he came to sit beside Stiles with his back against his bed. "Laura said born wolves learn control faster than bitten ones." He said with a small nod before grabbing himself a slice of pizza and a root beer. 

"From what I've read that isn't always the case. Deaton had a journal on the local wolves. Apparently there's another pack in the area that's Alpha is a bitten wolf who taught herself control by meditating and playing some Japanese board game." Stiles explained as he looked around for a plate. After a moment he realized he hadn't brought any and with a grumble he very carefully forced enough energy up his arm and though his fingertips to make the half eaten slice of pizza float in front of him as he grabbed himself a root beer and twisted the cap off. 

"Dude!" Scott said, watching the slice float in the air. "Do you use magic for everything?" He asked, tone giving a hint of wonder. 

Stiles snorted at that before tossing the little metal cap in the direction of Scott's trashcan. "I actually don't use it for much outside of lessons with the doc. I'm still too unstable. That's why I have the magic tattoos. Small stuff like this is nothing because I've done it a million times before. Bigger stuff that I haven't practiced could be dangerous. Like Deaton started teaching me on how to use healing magic this week. It's insane, dude. He has me starting on cuts of meat so I don't accidentally hurt anyone." 

Scott's eyes grew impossibly wide at that. "Whoa." 

"I know, right? He said he wasn't going to start me on that kind of training for another year, but with what's going on he figured it might come in handy." Stiles explained before taking a drink of his root beer and grabbing his floating slice of pizza out of the air to take another bite. 

"Why do you need to learn to heal anyway? If you're gonna take over for Deaton as an emissary you'd be working with wolves and we heal on our own pretty fast." Scott questioned, face scrunching in confusion as he tilted his head a little. 

"For starters, I never agreed to be an emissary." Stiles stated, pointing a finger in Scott's face. "And emissaries pick their pack. IF, and that's a pretty big if, I ever decide to be one, I would choose the pack I work with. And to answer your question, packs aren't made entirely of wolves. It's common for wolves to marry humans and have human children and such. So, if an emissary is a spark like I am, they need to know how to heal incase a human member of the pack gets hurt. Or if they get hurt. It's kind of useful all around." Stiles explained tiredly before stuffing slouching a bit and stuffing another bite of pizza in his mouth. His posture screamed 'drop it'. 

Scott made a noncommittal noise of understanding before hitting play on the first round of Halo and joining his friend slouched back against the side of his bed. 

Over the next few hours they devoured the majority of junk food Stiles had brought with him, that and the game time seemed to help cheer Scott up a little. Around nightfall it was obvious that he was still down and trying to put on a brave face, so they packed into the jeep and headed to Stiles' house to steal a bottle of jack from his dad before heading to the woods to see If getting drunk would have better results.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one isn't super long, I'm sorry for that. I promise there's much more interesting things coming our way and some more fun plot twists in the works.


	14. Building Trust, Sort Of

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! And this chapter's gonna be a long one! Sorry it's taken me so damn long to update this. Depression, ADD, Dyslexia and a generally hectic life make writing a bitch at times. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and as always I really would love to hear what you think at the end.  
> Enjoy!

Stiles awoke with a pained groan. The whiskey he'd drank the night before had left its mark by way of a raging hangover that made his head pound with every thump of his pulse and he instinctively curled in on himself in a feeble attempt to seek comfort from the onslaught of pain.

For a brief moment Stiles wondered why the hell he was conscious, consciousness was evil. Pure unadulterated evil. Why the hell did he drink so much last night? Oh, right, he was trying to keep pace with Scott. Scott, who thanks to his lycanthrope status, was now apparently unable to get drunk. Fuck. It's a good thing they were interrupted by those rap video rejects, or this hangover would probably have been accompanied by Stiles' best exorcist impression.

The thought of being sick actually made his stomach do a small roll in protest, but thankfully there was no actual urge to vomit. Just the raging headache and cotton mouth from hell. 

With another groan, which he instantly regretted as it made his headache worse, Stiles pushed himself up to sitting VERY slowly and looked over at his alarm clock. To his surprise it was almost 10am. The blinds on his windows were down and closed for once, making it blissfully dim in the usually bright room.

Stiles isn't at all surprised to look down and find Scott in his blanket nest on the floor again. They do have a cot that can be set up for guests, but Scott always declines on the grounds that it's uncomfortable, and sleeps in a heap of blankets on the floor instead. Once in a while he'll sleep up on the bed with Stiles, that was the regular after Stiles' mom died and he had trouble sleeping, but since high school started Scott has mostly stuck to the floor. (the exceptions being monster movie marathon nights, the anniversary of Stiles' mom's death, and a drunk night or two before this all started)

He looks hilarious (and maybe a little adorable) with one leg hooked up so his calf and foot rested on the edge of Stiles' bed. His torso and lower body were wrapped in a blanket, all twisted up sort of like a mock toga, and one arm slung over his face to block out light while the other was tucked close to his body, hand clutching the bit of blanket on his chest. His hair was sticking up in a few places from tossing and turning and he's clearly out cold from the way he's half snoring half mumbling between breaths.

Stiles cracks a smile at his friend, despite the pain he's in it makes him feel a little better to see that Scott is there and not off hunting down squirrels or rabbits or those guys from the preserve last night. He may have gone on a rant after they piled into his jeep last night about how he was worried about Scott almost wolfing out like that and that he would totally seal the house (or even his precious jeep) with mountain ash if he thought Scott might lose it and run off and hurt anyone in his current state.

Almost as if he knows he's being thought about, Scott snorts and comes to rather quickly. "Hey." He grumbles as he sits up and rubs at his eyes tiredly. "How long have you been awake?"

A chuckle escapes Stiles' lips before he can think better and it makes his throat hurt a little and his head pound harder. "Minute or two. Dude, I kind of lowkey hate you right now. This hangover is brutal." He says as he brings both hands up to rub at his face then go up over his head to rub over his buzzcut. The motion is soothing, and it calms the ache he's feeling just a sliver.

Scott's face goes soft at that, his eyes doing that sad puppy thing that makes Stiles feel an odd mix of protective and exasperated. "I told you to drink more water before bed." Scott chides, but even as he says it he's moving to grab the full glass on Stiles' night stand and hand it over.

Stiles accepts the glass and drains it in 4 large gulps, reveling in the way he feels it go down and settle in his stomach. When the glass is empty his mouth still feels fuzzy, but it's more the need to brush his teeth now than the dry feel of having drank too much alcohol. "New rule, stop me from trying to keep up with you on drinks. I'm 98% sure I'll die if we try that again, sans the interrupting thugs." He said with a pained smirk.

Scott cracked a smile of his own and took the empty glass to place it back on the night stand. "Deal." Is all he said before detangling himself from his blanket the rest of the way and heading out of the room without any explanation as to what he was doing.

Stiles flopped back down on the bed with a sigh, his usually super soft and welcoming pillow feeling hard and uncomfortable against his aching head. He laid there for a while, the smell of brewing coffee and what could either be waffles or pancakes wafting up the stairs and doing surprisingly little to motivate him to leave the dark confines of his bedroom.

During his time alone, Stiles tried to remember what all had gone down last night. He had a few short missing moments, but overall he remembered what happened. He remembered laying on the cold ground of the preserve while rambling about Lydia, which was stupid of him. Scott knows he's in love with her and has been for years. Though now when he thinks about her and his ten year plan his mind starts to wander to a certain broody wolf with green eyes and resting murder face and what it might take to get at least a smile out of the sourwolf.

With another groan Stiles pulled his spare pillow down and wrapped his arms around it in an attempt to ground himself against the dulling ache in his head and the thought that he MIGHT be developing feelings for Derek Hale of all people. He figured out a while ago that he was attracted to guys as well as girls. But this felt like something way beyond his mild crush on Danny.

Eventually Scott appeared in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest as he took in the miserable sight of Stiles curled up with his arms around his pillow like it was a lifeline. "Man, if you don't get up I'm going to eat your breakfast." When that did nothing to stir his friend he grinned and changed strategies. "Or I guess I could bring it to your dad. I'm sure he'd love a warm stack of waffles with real maple syrup." 

That got Stiles' attention and he was up much faster than he probably should have dared in his current state. "Oh, hell no! You are not giving my dad my breakfast. You are not throwing off his diet like that, Scotty."

Scott simply laughed and clapped a hand on Stiles' shoulder as he went to push past. "Dude, I was kidding. But seriously, don't you have to be at the clinic at noon for another lesson with Deaton?" 

Stiles paused mid step and cursed under his breath. "Yeah, I do. I need to get rid of this hangover fast." He grumbled as he made his way to the bathroom first to grab some tylenol and another glass of water.

Scott followed close behind, concern still evident on his face as Stiles caught a glimpse in the bathroom mirror. "Is it safe to practice magic with a hangover?" He asked, watching Stiles down two pills and a glass of water before turning to face Scott.

"No idea, but I'm sure as hell not skipping a lesson when there's a crazed Alpha running around." Stiles said resolutely before pushing past Scott and heading for the kitchen. "Besides, were just working on healing magic. The majority of it is visualizing. So, like, I have to imagine the wounds healing while focusing on drawing energy from the earth instead of from my spark." 

"What happens if you use your spark instead?" Scott asked as they made their way into the kitchen where he had already set out two plates of waffles and two cups of coffee.

"One of two things. I either nail the spell and everything is A-okay, or..." He trails off, already taking a seat and stuffing a bite of waffle in his mouth while he tried to think of how to not freak out Scott.

"Or? Or what?" Scott urged, trying giving Stiles a pointed look as he took the seat opposite him.

"Or," Stiles said around the bite of waffle before swallowing. "I heal whoever I'm healing and transfer the wound to myself." Stiles explained in a huff. "It's a toss up. Deaton said the odds of that happening are minimal since I'm a spark and not a run of the mill magic user that absolutely has to rely on the energy around them not to die since they don't have a mini magical power reactor in their body. Supposedly I should be able to do almost anything without hurting myself in the process, but we don't know for sure since sparks are rare and the handful that Deaton knows of that actually used their skills never kept journals or wrote about what they could or couldn't do. It's all second hand stories and speculation at this point. So, I could potentially hurt myself, or I could be totally fine. Either way Deaton doesn't want me to risk finding out until I've got more control of my spark."

Scott looked pale by the time Stiles was finished explaining. "Stiles.." He said, voice taking on a worried tone.

"Scotty, don't. It's fine. I'm gaining more control every day, just like you with your wolfie stuff. Hell, by this time next year I shouldn't need my tattoos to keep my magic on lockdown anymore. You don't need to worry about me. I'm good. I swear." Stiles said, pointedly cutting another piece of waffle. "Now can we please eat? I wanna take a shower and a load of laundry going before going to the clinic."

Scott's face slipped back into his usual easy smile. He nodded his agreement and dug into his own breakfast. The rest of the meal was spent in a comfortable silence. 

An hour, one shower, and half a pot of coffee later Stiles parked the jeep behind Deaton's clinic in his usual space before shooting his dad a text that he was at 'work' and to call the clinics phone if he needs him before stuffing his phone in the glovebox and hopping out to make his way inside for the days lesson.

The combination of food, coffee and pain killers had beat his hangover into submission and he was actually feeling pretty good about himself as he pushed unlocked and opened the back door of the clinic.

The good feeling quickly vanished as Stiles walked in to find Derek Hale standing over the primary exam table with one of the books Stiles had been studying in his hands. He didn't bother to look up at Stiles, probably having heard him coming before he even hit the parking lot. He was wearing his usual leather jacket, tight black jeans and a dark grey henley.

Stiles paused mid step at the sight of Derek, swallowing hard as a sudden flash of memory hit him. The memory of the two of them standing over that same exam table while Derek demanded Stiles cut off his arm to save his life. A moment later the flash was gone and Stiles made his way over to the table where he promptly pulled the book from the wolfs hands. "What are you doing here." He asked, wanting to sound intimidating and instead coming off a bit high pitched and maybe a tad panicked sounding.

Derek raised a brow at Stiles and crossed his arms over his chest before speaking. "Deaton and Laura are following a lead. I'm supposed to help you with your lesson." He said a bit tersely before unfolding his arms and starting to remove his jacket.

Stiles balked at that. "Dude, not for nothing, but how the hell is a werewolf going to help me practice healing magic? Last I knew you guys couldn't use the stuff."

With a roll of his eyes Derek placed his now discarded jacket on the table a good arms length away before pushing up the sleeve of his right arm. Before Stiles knew what he was doing Derek had extend a single claw and raked it up the front of his arm, a neat line of red that quickly started to bleed.

Stiles was instantly nauseated at the sight, hands grabbing the table to steady himself. "DUDE! WHAT THE HELL!" He snapped, looking from the mess of Derek's arm to his face. "You're gonna be healed before I can even start the spell, what are you thinking?" He barked before turning to grab paper towels from another table and moving to grab Derek's arm and press them to the bloody mess.

Derek grunted at the sudden pressure on the wound but made no attempt to pull his arm away. The contact of Stiles' skin on his making an odd but pleasant tingle run through his body. "I can suppress my ability to heal, which is exactly what I'm doing. Now get to work." Derek explained, tone odly calm and face pinching in what is apparently concentration at this point and maybe just a bit of annoyance. His eyes started to glow blue as he focused.

"Oh..." Stiles breathed, blinking in surprise at Derek before pulling his hands away and taking the bloodied paper towels with them. He quickly set them aside before shucking off his flannel, not wanting to get blood on it. He swallowed around the lump forming in his throat before holding his hands at either side of Derek's outstretched arm, not touching but close enough to feel the warmth radiating there. "You sure about this?" He asked, his own eyes locking with the now fully glowing blue ones that hand been locked on his brown ones this entire time.

Derek gave a sharp nod. "Just do it." He said, eyes only leaving Stiles' when the tattoos he'd never noticed on Stiles' arms started to glow and move of their own accord. Derek's focus almost slipped as he watched the lines of the Celtic knot's being to twist and writhe while the runes spun and the flowers swayed as if blown by a breeze, taking on a life of their own as a soft white glow built around Stiles' hands.

Stiles kept his eyes focused on the still bleeding cut on Derek's arm, his stomach rolling a bit in protest as he focused on drawing up energy from the earth and visualizing the bleeding stopping and the skin before him knitting closed again. As the glow around his hands built the visualization became a reality. Blood slipping back up into the place it had come from and skin closing up to look as if it had never been cut in the first place.

When it was done, the glow faded around Stiles' hands and he let out a victorious cry, hands clenching into fists before he pumped them in the air. He looked up to meet Derek's gaze again, grin growing wider at the look of total shock on the wolfs face. "Hah! Bet you thought I couldn't do it!"

Derek blinked up at Stiles before his eyes dropped back down to the still visible tattoos on his arms. He cleared his throat before shaking off the surprise of the moment. "Quit bragging and do it again." Derek said as he ran two claws up his arm without hesitation or so much as a wince. 

"Dude! Quit being such a sourwolf." Stiles scoffed, smacking his shoulder before placing his hands to hover over the wounds on Derek's arm this time. "If you don't want to help me I can go back to working on the cuts of meat Deats got in the fridge down the hall." He offered, hoping a little that Derek will go for that option instead of continuing to make Stiles stand close enough to smell his aftershave and feel his breath ghosting his face. Being so close to Derek was making his skin tingle, almost as much as touching his arm had moments before. He wasn't sure what to make of it but it definitely wasn't a bad feeling in the slightest.

Derek huffed and gave Stiles an impatient look, urging him to do as he's told with his eyes instead of his words. Because while he would much rather let Stiles practice on the cuts of meat, which is what he was actually instructed to do, he knows that this is more practical as they might need his ability to heal when they find the Alpha and make their play to stop him. So, he'll suck up the tingling feeling under his skin, and the way being close to Stiles is making him feel simultaneously terrified and at ease in a way he hasn't been around anyone that wasn't Laura in 6 years, and he'll let the spark practice healing with him as the guinea pig. 

Stiles let out another cheer when he successfully healed the two wounds Derek had created, this time just a little faster than he had been with the single one. The look of pure elation on Stiles' face actually making Derek crack a slight smile of his own, which the teen did not miss.

"Oh, god! Is that a smile? Are you actually smiling right now? Holy crap, I thought your face would break if you smiled. At the very least I expected some sort of cracking sound in this scenario." Stiles said excitedly, voice taking on a teasing tone that actually got Derek to smile wider.

"Shut up." Derek huffed before schooling his features and raising a brow at Stiles again, silently asking if he was ready to go again.

The grin stayed on Stiles face as he held his hands at the ready again. "Aright, big guy, let's see what you got." 

Derek rolled his eyes again before digging his claws into his arm again. They went on like this for the next hour. Derek trying his best not to crack under the joy radiating from the teen definitely not memorizing the pattern of moles on his face or the way his normally anxiety riddled scent spiked with joy at every success as he watched Stiles heal him over and over.

And if Stiles took the moments between bouts of healing to get lost in those hazel green eyes and memorize the faint smile Derek would crack at his attempts to draw a reaction out of the wolf, well that was nobody's business but their own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what are you all thinking so far? Any theories, questions, comments? Wanna chat about stuff I've established in this story? I'm always up for talking about this stuff.


	15. Lunatic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back!
> 
> So, I'm super freaking sorry I haven't been updating like I'd like to. So, this chapter is almost 5k. I hope that helps. I did some scene rewrites for Lunatic, and added my own stuff into the mix. I hope you all enjoy and will bear with me as I try to get this season finished lol

Stiles knew something was off the moment he saw Scott. The normally happy-go-lucky look on his best friend’s face had been replaced with a sullen look the moment he entered the classroom. Granted, he also had to face Allison the moment he’d walked in, and was promptly told to take a seat by Harris, so that couldn’t have helped matters any.

Knowing something was wrong but that he could do nothing until the damn class was over, he would look down at the test booklet they were being tortured with, read a question, glanced up at Scott, then back down to answer the question before looking up again. 

They hadn’t even made it five minutes into the test when Scott bolted out of the room like he’d been electrocuted.

Without bothering to acknowledge Mr. Harris, Stiles ran after Scott, finding his backpack abandoned in the middle of the hall and no other signs of Scott himself. He picked up the bag, looking around a moment before pulling out his cellphone and hitting call on Scott’s number as he started to walk, listening for this best friend’s ringtone.

The sound led him to the locker room, where he could hear a shower running as he hung up the phone.

Sure enough, Scott was standing, shirtless no less, under one of the running showerheads. His shoulders heaving as he tried to calm down.

Stiles heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of Scott. He was still human from the looks of him. No pointed ears or sharp claws on either hand where they rested against the tiled wall.

Scott turned off the water when he heard Stiles’ sigh, before turning slightly to face him. “Stiles.” he huffed, sounding out of breath. “I can’t...” 

“What’s happening, are you changing?” Stiles asked, reaching out with one hand while slipping the other into his pocket to take hold of the bag of mountain ash he had just in case.

“No,” Scott said as he turned so his back was to the wall. ” I can’t breathe.” a raspy gasp punctuating the sentence.

Realizing what this was, Stiles quickly pulled Scott’s backpack from his shoulder and scrambled to get to the upper zippered pocket as his friend continued to wheeze and gasp. A moment later he pulled out Scott’s rescue inhaler and held it out. “Here, use this.” 

Scott just looked at him, his face showing utter confusion at why he’d be handing the no-longer asthmatic wolf his old inhaler.

“Come on, do it!” Stiles insisted, shaking the inhaler for emphasis.

Scott took it, looking a bit skeptical as he removed the cap and took a puff. When he exhaled he seemed to be breathing easier and he was clearly baffled. “Wha.. I was having an asthma attack?” He asked incredulously.

“No, no you were having a panic attack.” Stiles explained, knowing all too well how those felt. “But thinking you were having an asthma attack actually stopped the panic attack. Irony.” He sing-songed the last word, bouncing on his heels a little and hoping to release some pent-up anxiety he was feeling in the moment.

“How’d you know to do that?” Scott asked, still leaned against the wall and sounding like he was only just catching his breath.

“I used to get them after my mom died. Not fun, huh?” He said without expecting an answer. He knew the answer. Panic attacks were the worst. Plain and simple.

Scott shook his head, agreeing it sucked. “I looked at her, and it was like someone hit me in the ribs with a hammer.”

“Yeah, it’s called heartbreak. About two billion songs written about it” Stile said, trying not to roll his eyes at the situation. They were legit caught in the middle of a fight with a psycho Alpha wolf roaming the woods, and here was Scott, having a panic attack over being dumped for the first time.

“I can’t stop thinking about her.” Scott lamented, running a hand through his wet hair.

“Well, you could think about this? Her dad’s a werewolf hunter, and you’re a werewolf. So, it was bound to become an issue.” Stiles said, tone a bit snarkier than he meant. “That wasn’t helpful.” he added in a light tone when Scott gave him an impressive glare. His time with the Hale’s was totally influencing him. “Dude, I mean, yeah, you got dumped, and it’s supposed to suck.” Stiles tried to correct.

“No, that’s not it.” Scott said, shaking his head and looking defeated now as he struggled to explain further. “It was like I could feel everything in the room, everyone else’s emotions...”

“It’s gotta be the full moon.” Stiles supplied, not sure what else could cause his friend to have such a strong reaction. “So, we’ll lock you up in your room later, just like we planned. That way the Alpha, who is your boss, can’t get to you either.”

“I think we need to do a lot more than lock me in my room.” Scott said, looking up at Stiles now in all seriousness.

“What, you mean because if you get out you’d be caught by hunters? Because you do remember I was also going to line the windows and doors with mountain ash so as to avoid that exact scenario. That was, in fact, the full plan we had agreed upon.” Stiles reiterated, wondering if Scott was thinking clearly now or not

“No, because if I get out I think I might kill someone.” Scott replied, finally pushing away from the wall and standing up straight so he and Stiles were eye to eye.

“Yeah, not gonna let that happen, buddy. Now, can we please get out of here. You need to get dried off and changed so we can go get reamed out by Harris for ditching mid test. If we’re lucky he’ll let us finish it and not totally fail.” Stiles said, slapping Scott on the shoulder once before turning to go and grab a towel from his locker.

The rest of the school day was torture, simply for the fact that Scott wasn’t in any of Stiles’ other classes that day or even in his lunch period, so he didn’t know how his friend was doing outside of update texts that they snuck whenever possible.

Things seemed to be looking up when they got back to the locker room before lacrosse practice. it was announced that not only would Stiles be first line, but Scott was now co-captain! This was a freaking miracle! Especially when Scott commented on smelling everyone's jealousy in the locker room. He knew wolves being able to sniff out emotions was a thing, but he didn’t think Scott would be able to pick things like that out yet. Not with the small amount of training he’d had so far.

“Can you pick up on stuff like, I don’t know, desire?” Stiles found himself asking as nonchalantly as possible, stupidly hoping maybe his friends heightened senses could be advantageous in this moment of what he would later decide was total stupidity.

“What do you mean, desire?” Scott asked, giving his best friend a look of confusion.

“Like, sexual desire?” Stiles asked with a roll of his eyes and looking to make sure no one was close enough to hear them before looking back to his friend again.

“Sexual desire?” Scott parroted, looking at Stiles now like he was completely out of his mind.

“Yeah, sexual desire. Lust, Passion, arousal.” he said with a roll of the R in the last word. Because he was feeling amped up and cocky and if he was right, in his current enhanced state Scott might be able to help a bro out in his lack of a love life.

Scott just rolled his eyes and looked down the hall to where the last of the team was heading out to the field and walking past Lydia Martin. “From Lydia?” He asked, tone a bit exasperated.

“What? No! In a general, broad sense, can you determine sexual desire?” Stiles asked, feeling a little exasperated himself now at the run around of their conversation.

“From Lydia to you?” Scott asked, looking a little amused now. 

“Fine! Yes, from Lydia to me.” Stiles said, trying to keep his voice down and gritting his teeth a little in frustration. “Look, I need to know if I have a chance with this girl, okay? I’ve been obsessing over her since the third freaking grade.”

“Why don’t you just ask her?” Scott asked, like it was the easiest freaking thing in the world to just go up to the girl of your dreams and spill your guts like it was nothing.

“Well, to save myself utterly crushing humiliation. Thank you, Scott.” he replied, not understanding how his best friend could not get this. He himself had just as much trouble with girls before. No way having one girlfriend for less than a month made him forget what this was like. “Okay? So, please, can you just go and ask her if she likes me? See if her heartbeat rises, or pheromones come out.” He added with a wave of a hand over his head for emphasis.

Scott just gave him one of his slightly tilted looks and turned to start walking towards Lydia. “Fine.” is all he said.

“I love you!” Stiles called after him, relief flooding him that his best friend was doing him this solid. “I love you! You’re my best friend in the whole world.” he rambled, watching Scott walk towards Lydia and the other girl she was talking to.

Scott asked Lydia to talk, and then they were gone.

Buzzing with a feeling of accomplishment, Stiles made his way out to the field to join the team for practice.

He should have known Scott was lying when he said Lydia not only liked him but was totally into him. He could feel his tattoo’s going crazy under his lacrosse gear. But, he was too amped to think it was more than the enchanted ink trying to burn off the abundance of energy his spark was making from his excitement.

Yeah, that all came crashing down when Scott body checked two team mates then smacked Danny hard enough to make him bleed and Lydia came running over with smudged lipstick. Lipstick that had been perfectly applied to her perfect lips before going off to talk with Scott.

Practice got called short so Danny and the other two guys that Scott smacked down could go to the nurse then home. So, Stiles left without a word to Scott and went to gather the things he’d need to put his furry ass on lockdown that night.

The door was locked when Stiles got to the house, which wasn’t a surprise given the number of murders in the last month. So, being the ever-prepared person he was, he pulled out his key and let himself in.

“Scott?” Mrs. McCall called from the living room at the sound of the front door opening, emerging into the entryway a moment later.

“Stiles.” Stiles replied, smiling despite the look of disappointment he received in return. He hated when Melissa looked at him like that. It reminded him of the look his mom would often give him when she was starting to get really sick near the end. 

“Key.” she stated, looking down at the key he still had in his hand.

“Yeah, I had one made, so...” He said, hoping she wouldn’t take it away.

“That doesn’t surprise me.” Melissa said, tone back to her usual upbeat regular. “It scares me, but it doesn’t surprise me.” 

Not sure if she was joking, Stiles laughed and let the duffle bag he carried fall to the floor with a loud thud.

“What is that?” Mrs. McCall asked, pointing to the bag like it had somehow offended her by existing.

“Uh, school project.” Stiles explained easily. 

“Hmm..” She hummed like she might question the lie, but then changed subjects. “Stiles, he’s okay, right?”

“Who? Scott? Yeah. Totally.” He said with a shrug, hoping he wasn’t talking too fast or looking too anxious. He was well aware he always came off as a bit anxious, but still.

“He just doesn’t talk to me that much anymore.” Melissa said, sounding a little sad. “Not like he used to.”

Floundering a little, Stiles tried to cover. “Well, he’s had a bit of a rough week.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Yeah. Um, okay. Be careful tonight.” She said, shaking off whatever train of thought she was in and reaching for her car keys.

“You too.” Stiles said.

Once she was gone he went upstairs and promptly handcuff his best friend to the radiator beneath his window.

“Is this really necessary?” Scott asked, glowering at the chain that connected the cuff on his wrist to the one on the radiator pipe. 

“Uh, yeah. Totally. I can literally feel how worked up you are, Scott. It’s making my tattoo’s freak out.” Stiles said, shucking his jacket off and pulling his sleeves up for emphasis.

Scott glares up with golden eyes and watches the ink dance across Stiles’ arms a moment before the gold faded back to brown and he let his gaze drop again.

Now that that was out of the way, Stiles grabbed up his jacket and quickly put down lines of mountain ash in the windows and doors, even going so far as to do a circle around the house, before making his way back upstairs.

Feeling a little vindictive, he had stopped at the store on his way over and picked up a dog bowl. Which he brought up stairs with him along with a bottle of water he’d been drinking earlier.

“Got you some water.” He said before giving a little smirk and sticking his tongue out just a bit as he poured the contents of the bottle in the bowl that clearly read ‘SCOTT’ in large black letters. Once it was full he set it on the floor in front of Scott and turned to walk out of the room.

A moment later the bowl came flying, splashing Stiles as it hit him in the back. “I’m gonna kill you!” Scott shouted.

Anger bubbled to the surface as Stiles turned back to face Scott. “You kissed her, Scott, okay? You kissed Lydia. That’s, like, the one girl that I ever... And, you know, the past three hours I’ve been thinking it’s probably just the full moon. Ya’know, he probably doesn’t even know what he’s doing and tomorrow he’ll be totally back to normal. He probably won’t even remember what a complete dumbass he’s been. A son of a bitch, a freaking unbelievable piece of crap friend. 

“She kissed me.” Scott said, Tone low and a hint dangerous. 

Taken aback, Stiles blinked down at Scott. “What?”

Scott raised up a little, expression cocky as he spoke again. “I didn’t kiss her. She kissed me.” he said, smiling away like the cat that got the canary.

Stiles turned away, unable to look at Scott when he was like this. He walked out of the room, pulling the door mostly closed behind him and stopping to lean heavily against the wall outside the doorway. No way. There’s was no freaking way. Lydia had zero interest in Scott. She only even acknowledged his presence before today because he was dating Allison.

“She would have done a lot more, too. You should have seen the way she had her hands all over me.” Scott said, tone growing louder, something bold in it, like a hunter bragging about what he’d just managed to bag for pray. “She would have done anything I wanted. ANYTHING!”

The last comment made Stiles feel a little ill. He slid down to sit on the floor and closed his eyes. This wasn’t his best friend talking. The Scott he knew wasn’t like this. It was the full moon. It had to be.

The sat like that a while. Stiles with his eyes closed and head resting against the wall as he tried to convince himself not to be mad at his best friend. While Scott grunted, groaned, and yanked at the handcuff that held his wrist tight.

“Stiles, please let me out. It’s the full moon, I swear.” Scott pleaded, though the tone he used was less than convincing. “You know I wouldn’t do any of this on purpose.”

Biting his lip, Stiles said nothing. He knew it was a lie. Scott wasn’t himself right now and Derek and Laura were off hunting the Alpha so they couldn’t come help. It was just him and Scott. And it was going to be a hell of a long night.

“Please, Stiles, let me out. It’s starting to hurt.” Scott continued to beg, something in his voice ringing hollow. “It’s not like the first time. It’s the full moon. It’s Allison breaking up with me.”

Stiles still said nothing, hating that his friend was going through this. But there was nothing he could do. If he let him out someone was going to get hurt. There was no way around it.

“I know that it’s not just taking a break. She broke up with me. And it’s killing me.” Scott carried on, tone never wavering from the oddly hollow note. “I feel completely helpless. Just, please, let me out.”

“I can’t.” Stiles forced himself to say, despite the desire not to speak. Nothing Scott could say right now would convince him to let him out. Nothing could make his anger about Lydia and Scott kissing lessen at the moment. 

Stiles covered his ears as Scott started to scream and struggle against his cuffs harder. He wished he knew a spell to silence the sound, or had at least thought to bring earplugs or headphones or something. The screaming continued and Stiles found himself near tears as he rubbed his hands over his buzzcut and prayed to god his best friend would calm down soon.

Then there was a growl, and the sound of the handcuffs jingling once more before the sounds all stopped.

“Scott, are you okay?” Stiles asked, moving to stand and pushing the door the rest of the way open to see a fully wolfed out Scott crouching on the floor and looking up at the full moon through the window above the radiator.

The second Scott’s head turned Stiles stepped back over the line of mountain ash he’d laid in the doorway and fell flat on his ass as Scott leapt forward and was promptly knocked back to the floor by the invisible barrier.

Stiles was calling Laura before he even realized he had the phone to his ear.

Three rings later the line connected and the Alpha answered, sounding a little winded. “Stiles? Is everything alright?” She asked.

“Scott’s totally lost it.” He said in a rush that was punctuated by a roar from his best friend that made the hairs on his arms and neck stand up.

“Are you alright?” Laura demanded, the sound of running just audible in the background.

“Yeah, yes, I’m fine. He’s trapped in his room. I lined the whole house with mountain ash. But I don’t think he even knows what he’s doing. He just tried to take a lunge at me.” Stiles explained, pushing himself as flat against the far wall as he could as Scott took another howling leap at the barrier, smacking into it at full force before skidding back a few feet and looking only momentarily dazed before growling in frustration.

“Put me on speaker phone and turn the volume up full blast.” Laura said over the slightly crackly line.

Stiles did as he was told, switching to speaker and clicking the volume key until his phone hit max. “Alright, you’re live.” he said holding his phone up and waiting for further instructions.

After the sound of a sharp inhale the speaker on Stiles’ phone nearly blew out as a howl came forth. It wasn’t as loud as it had to have been on Laura’s end. But it was still loud enough to make Scott duck down in fear a moment before howling in response and slamming into the barrier again.

“I take it that didn’t do much.” Laura said over the line a beat later.

“Nope. Any chance of you getting over here anytime soon to tame wolfboy before he finds a way to bust through the mountain ash barrier and maul me to death?” Stiles asked, cringing when Scott smashed into the barrier yet again.

There was a rustling sound before Laura spoke again. “We’re coming now. We lost track of the Alpha anyeway. Be there in twenty.” She said before the line went dead.

Stiles breathed a short-lived sigh of relief and pocked his phone before watched Scott give up on body slamming the barrier and moving to crouch down and just growl as he locked eyes with his best friend, no sign of recognition in the golden glow.

“Scotty, this isn’t you. You gotta snap out of it, man, just snap out of it, come on.” Stiles pleased. 

The words had no effect on Scott, who simply continued to stare Stiles down and emit a low grow now and then.

“Please don’t do anything moronic until I get back.” Stiles said as he slowly raised to his feet and went to head down stairs and wait for Laura and Derek to arrive. He’d need to break and reseal the mountain ash when they got here so he might as well go watch for them until then.

The sound of Scott pacing in his room and occasionally trying one of the windows only to be bounced off a barrier was making Stiles’ nerves fray further as he waited for the Camaro to arrive.

Soon enough the rumble of the engine coming down the otherwise quiet street alerted Stiles to the approach of the two wolves. He had the lines of ash broken when they parked behind Stiles’ jeep and with a wave of his hand the lines were reformed as the two stepped past them.

“How bad is he?” Laura asked, as she met Stiles in the yard, Derek hot on her heel. 

“Well, he made out with the girl of my dreams, who’s best friend he’s head over heels for, then body checked three guys on the lacrosse team for no reason during practice today. Now he’s completely wolfed out and wants to rip my guts out and use them to redecorate his room. So, I’d say he’s about as far from good as he possibly can be at the moment.” Stiles rambled as he led the way up to Scott’s bedroom.

A little huff of annoyance left Derek along with an eyeroll that Stiles only caught because he had turned his head when reaching the top of the stairs.

“Hey, don’t roll your eyes at me sourwolf! Okay, I know my pathetic teenage problems must be way beneath you, but it was a shit day and it got topped off by my best friend rubbing it all in my face before losing his mind and trying to kill me!” Stiles snapped, making both Laura and Derek take pause at the burst of energy that came forth when his tattoos couldn’t work fast enough to burn it all off.

Laura cleared her throat once Stiles was stock still looking mildly horrified. “Take a breath, Stiles. You’re alright. Scott is going to be alright. I can snap him out of it, I promise.” she said as she finished climbing the stairs and put a gentle hand on his arm.

“Yeah... Yeah, okay. I know you can, I just... I’m sorry.” Stiles said as he followed Laura to the end the bend in the hall, sure he must look as ashamed as he felt at the outburst. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Laura said before heading down the hall towards the sound of a growling Scott.

Stiles gave Derek a sheepish look, bringing a hand up to chew at his nails as he turned away from the intense green gaze to see what Laura was doing. The barrier on the door was still holding and would until he removed it, so he wasn’t sure what she was going to do exactly.

Laura turned to give Stiles a smile before letting her face shift to her Beta form, eyes going Red and ears becoming pointed as her teeth grew sharp. When she looked through the open doorway Scott was crouched down on all fours. He growled but didn’t back down.

“You’re going to want to cover your ears.” Derek said, making Stiles glance at him briefly before doing as he was told.

Laura took a deep breath, held her head high, and let loose a roar that rattled the framed photos on the walls and made Stiles wince in pain despite already having plugged his ears. When she was finished she turned and gave Stiles another smile before waving him over.

Stiles only hesitated a moment before sprinting the short distance down the hall to the door of Scott’s room. Sure enough, when he looked in his best friend was sitting on his bedroom floor, features back to human and expression totally confused.

“Oh boy, Scotty? That you?” Stiles asked, putting a hand on Laura’s shoulder in a silent thank you before stepping closer to the line of mountain ash.

“Yeah... It’s me. What the hell?” Scott asked, look of confusion morphing to anger.

“Dude, don’t ‘what the hell’ me! You were totally out of it! Like, foaming at the mouth, maim the nearest living thing, which happened to be me thank you very much, out of it!” Stiles argued. “If Laura hadn’t just roared you into submission I would have been explaining to you why your room was ripped to shreds in the morning.”

Scott looked pale as Stiles’ words sank in. “Stiles, I-”

“Save it. I’m going down stairs.” Stiles said with a wave of his hand that made the bedroom door slam shut, which hadn’t been his intention, but he rolled with it. He was glad Scott wasn’t wolfed out anymore, but he needed some time alone after everything that had happened.

Stiles made his way out to the front porch and sat on the steps. He could faintly hear the sound of Laura talking to Scott drift down and out the open door, but he wasn’t really listening. Too busy trying to calm himself. 

He nearly jumped out of his skin when Derek came from out of nowhere and sat down on the step beside him. “Jesus! Give a guy a little warning why don’t you!” He barked at the wolf.

“The stairs squeak. Not my fault you didn’t hear me coming.” Derek said, not looking at Stiles and instead out at the woods across the street. There were a few other houses, but the neighborhood was on the edge of town so it was fairly quiet out here.

“Right.” Is all Stiles could bring himself to say. He didn’t want to talk. Or even be around anyone. What he wanted was to create a fireball the size of his face and-

“Why are your hands smoking?” Derek asked, snapping Stiles out of his train of thought.

When he looked down there was indeed smoke coming from his fingertips. He quickly shook his hands out and took a few calming breaths. His tattoos had kept an actual fireball from forming, but it was clear his spark was running double time and he needed to do something about it now before he did anything else that could hurt someone.

“No, well, sort of. I was thinking I’d like to throw a fireball at Scott’s stupid face.” Stiles admitted a little bitterly, glancing over to see that Derek was still staring at his hands like they were the most interesting thing in the world right now. “My spark doesn’t always get the memo that it’s just a thought, and, well..” he shook his hands again, finally getting the smoking to stop.

“So the tattoos burn the energy off so you don’t actually create a fireball? Or blow the roof off the house when you’re upset.” Derek surmised, earning a nod in acknowledgement. “Go home, Stiles. Get some rest or get rid of the excess energy. It’s making you smell like a thunder storm. We’ll take care of Scott. Just break the ash lines before you go so we aren’t stuck.”

Stiles turned his head just enough to give Derek a calculating once over. He was serious, and despite the urge to do otherwise, Stiles felt like he could trust him. “Alright, fine. Call me if anything happens.” He said before closing his eyes, visualizing the line he left on Scott’s doorway, and with flick of his wrist, he visualized it breaking. A startled sound from Laura confirmed it worked as he imagined and with that Stiles stood and headed for his jeep. He kicked the line around the house open along the way and spared a single glance back to see Derek still on the steps watching him.

After a short drive home, Stiles found the house empty and promptly made the biggest fireball he could muster (without it risking a wildfire or burning down the house), lobbed it into the mostly empty BBQ in the back yard, and made himself a few s'mores with the supplies he kept hidden in his jeep before passing out until his alarm went off in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I'd love to hear from you guys. Hope you enjoyed the story.

**Author's Note:**

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